Platinum single atom catalysts for hydrogen isotope separation during hydrogen evolution reaction

Electrolysis of water is widely used for hydrogen isotope separation and the development of hydrogen evolution reaction (HER) catalysts with high selectivity and activity is of key importance. Herein, we propose single atom catalysts (SACs) as promising catalysts for efficient hydrogen isotope separation. Pt SACs and Pt nanoparticles (NPs) have been fabricated on nanoarray-structured nitrogen-doped graphite foil (NGF) substrate by a polyol reduction method. The as prepared Pt-1/NGF electrode exhibits high activity and selectivity toward HER with a low overpotential of 0.022 V at 10 mA center dot cm(-2) and a high separation factor of 6.83 for hydrogen and deuterium separation, much better than Pt NPs counterpart. Density functional theory (DFT) calculations ascribe the high activity and selectivity to the constructed Pt-N2C2 structure. This work develops a new opportunity for the design and application of high-efficiency and stable SACs toward hydrogen isotope separation by electrolysis of water.

Automated summary

In this study, single atom catalysts (SACs) were proposed as promising catalysts for efficient hydrogen isotope separation by electrolysis of water. Pt SACs and Pt nanoparticles (NPs) were fabricated and their high activity and selectivity were attributed to the constructed Pt-N2C2 structure according to density functional theory calculations.