Descriptors for Hydrogen Evolution on Single Atom Catalysts in Nitrogen-Doped Graphene
- Victor FungVictor FungDepartment of Chemistry, University of California, Riverside, California 92521, United StatesCenter for Nanophase Materials Sciences, Oak Ridge National Laboratory, Oak Ridge, Tennessee 37831, United StatesMore by Victor Fung
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- Guoxiang HuGuoxiang HuDepartment of Chemistry, University of California, Riverside, California 92521, United StatesCenter for Nanophase Materials Sciences, Oak Ridge National Laboratory, Oak Ridge, Tennessee 37831, United StatesMore by Guoxiang Hu
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- Zili WuZili WuCenter for Nanophase Materials Sciences, Oak Ridge National Laboratory, Oak Ridge, Tennessee 37831, United StatesChemical Sciences Division, Oak Ridge National Laboratory, Oak Ridge, Tennessee 37831, United StatesMore by Zili Wu
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- De-en Jiang*De-en Jiang*Email: [email protected]Department of Chemistry, University of California, Riverside, California 92521, United StatesMore by De-en Jiang
Abstract

Single-atom catalysts (SACs) are a new research frontier in electrocatalysis such as in the hydrogen evolution reaction (HER). Recent theoretical and experimental studies have demonstrated that certain M–N–C (metal–nitrogen–carbon) based SACs exhibit excellent performance for HER. Here we report a new approach to tune HER activity for SACs by changing the size and dimensionality of the carbon substrate while maintaining the same coordination environment. We screen the 3d, 4d, and 5d transition metal SACs in N-doped 2D graphene and nanographenes of several sizes for HER using first-principles density functional theory (DFT). Nanographenes containing V, Rh, and Ir are predicted to have significantly enhanced HER activity compared to their 2D graphene counterparts. We turn to machine learning to accurately predict the free energy of hydrogen adsorption (ΔGH) based on various descriptors and compressed sensing to identify key descriptors for activity, which can be used to further screen for additional candidates.
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