Nanofaceted C/Re(1121): Fabrication, Structure, and Template for Synthesizing Nanostructured Model Pt Electrocatalyst for Hydrogen Evolution Reaction

We report the first observation of carbon-induced nanofaceting of a Re single crystal and its application in synthesizing a nanostructured model Pt electrocatalyst investigated using multiple surface science techniques, including low-energy electron diffraction, Auger electron spectroscopy, X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy, low-energy ion scattering, and scanning tunneling microscopy, combined with electrochemical reaction measurements. Upon annealing in acetylene at 700 K followed by annealing in vacuum at 1100 K, an initially planar Re(112̅1) surface becomes completely faceted and covered with three-sided nanopyramids exposing (011̅1), (101̅1), and (112̅0) faces. Using the faceted C/Re(112̅1) surface as a template, we have successfully fabricated a nanostructured Pt monolayer (ML) electrocatalyst. The Pt ML supported on the C/Re nanotemplate exhibits higher activity for the hydrogen evolution reaction than Pt(111). This is the first application of faceted metal surfaces as templates for synthesis of nanoscale model electrocatalyst with well-defined (facet) surface structure and controlled (facet) size on the nanometer scale, illustrating the potential for future studies of nanostructured bimetallic systems relevant to electrocatalytic reactions.