Preparation of a Pt thin-film modified electrode for alkaline electrocatalytic oxidation of methanol by Cu(OH)2 electrodeposition and galvanic replacement reaction

Modulating the Electronic Metal-Support Interactions in Single-Atom Pt1 -CuO Catalyst for Boosting Acetone Oxidation

The development of highly active single-atom catalysts (SACs) and identifying their intrinsic active sites in oxidizing industrial hazardous hydrocarbons are challenging prospects. Tuning the electronic metal-support interactions (EMSIs) is valid for modulating the catalytic performance of SACs. We propose that the modulation of the EMSIs in a Pt₁ -CuO SAC significantly promotes the activity of the catalyst in acetone oxidation. The EMSIs promote charge redistribution through the unified Pt-O-Cu moieties, which modulates the d-band structure of atomic Pt sites, and strengthens the adsorption and activation of reactants. The positively charged Pt atoms are superior for activating acetone at low temperatures, and the stretched Cu-O bonds facilitate the activation of lattice oxygen atoms to participate in subsequent oxidation. We believe that this work will guide researchers to engineer efficient SACs for application in hydrocarbon oxidation reactions.

Electrochemical Synthesis of Plasmonic Nanostructures

Thanks to their tunable and strong interaction with light, plasmonic nanostructures have been investigated for a wide range of applications. In most cases, controlling the electric field enhancement at the metal surface is crucial. This can be achieved by controlling the metal nanostructure size, shape, and location in three dimensions, which is synthetically challenging. Electrochemical methods can provide a reliable, simple, and cost-effective approach to nanostructure metals with a high degree of geometrical freedom. Herein, we review the use of electrochemistry to synthesize metal nanostructures in the context of plasmonics. Both template-free and templated electrochemical syntheses are presented, along with their strengths and limitations. While template-free techniques can be used for the mass production of low-cost but efficient plasmonic substrates, templated approaches offer an unprecedented synthetic control. Thus, a special emphasis is given to templated electrochemical lithographies, which can be used to synthesize complex metal architectures with defined dimensions and compositions in one, two and three dimensions. These techniques provide a spatial resolution down to the sub-10 nanometer range and are particularly successful at synthesizing well-defined metal nanoscale gaps that provide very large electric field enhancements, which are relevant for both fundamental and applied research in plasmonics.