Chemical functionalization of commercial Pt/C electrocatalyst towards formic acid electrooxidation

The chemical functionalization on the noble metal surface will undoubtedly affect the electrode reaction process. In this work, 1,10-phenanthroline (PL) functionalized commercial Pt/C electrocatalyst (Pt/C@PL) is successfully achieved through a convenient post-modification strategy. The adsorption of PL molecules on Pt/C electrocatalyst surface effectively isolates the continuous Pt atoms. Consequently, the formic acid electrooxidation reaction (FAOR) on Pt/C@PL electrocatalyst only obeys the dehydrogenation pathway, in which the generation of COads is completely suppressed. Compared with unfunctionalized commercial Pt/C electrocatalyst, Pt/C@PL electrocatalyst reveals a 11.4/16.8-fold increase in mass/specific activity, exhibiting a prominently enhanced electrocatalytic performance towards FAOR. This strategy, the chemical functionalization on the electrocatalysts surface, is easy to operate and applicable to commercial electrocatalyst that already exist, which also provides a simple and efficient way in the design of advanced electrocatalysts towards many other electrochemical reactions.