1. Electrochemically synthesized freestanding 3D nanoporous silver electrode with high electrocatalytic activity
- Author
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Guoxiong Wang, Luhua Jiang, Xinhe Bao, Yuan Lizhi, Gongquan Sun, Suli Wang, and Tianran Zhang
- Subjects
Materials science ,Nanoporous ,Inorganic chemistry ,Kinetics ,Halide ,02 engineering and technology ,010402 general chemistry ,021001 nanoscience & nanotechnology ,Electrochemistry ,01 natural sciences ,Catalysis ,Silver nanoparticle ,0104 chemical sciences ,Electrode ,Crystallite ,0210 nano-technology - Abstract
Three-dimensional nanoporous metals of highly porous structure and interconnected ligaments are attractive for electrochemical reactions. Herein, freestanding 3D nanoporous silver (np-Ag) is prepared by a facile electrochemical approach, i.e., first electro-oxidizing silver to silver halides followed by electro-reduction of the silver halides by controlling the potential applied to the electrode. The np-Ag displays 130 and 11.5 times enhancement in catalytic activity for the oxygen reduction reaction and the formaldehyde electro-oxidation reaction, respectively, relative to the flat polycrystalline silver, and even outperforms the commercial nano-Pt catalyst. Detailed experimental and theoretical studies discover that both the facilitated mass transportation in the 3D interconnected porous structures and the favored kinetics contribute to the superior electro-catalytic activity of np-Ag.
- Published
- 2016