Insight of the Activity and Stability of Transition Metal Atoms Embedded in MnO for Triiodide Reduction Reaction

It is of great significance to study single-atom catalysts and their electrocatalytic behavior, which not only dramatically reduces the use of precious metals but also greatly promotes the design of electrocatalysts at atomic and molecular scales. In this work, a new single-atom catalyst, Pt1/MnO, was designed and synthesized. As a counter electrode (CE) material in dye-sensitized solar cells (DSSCs), Pt1/MnO was systematically investigated for its triiodine reduction reaction (TRR) catalytic activity by different electrochemical methods, and the photovoltaic performance of DSSCs devices assembled by Pt1/MnO CEs was also tested. Based on the experimental study, the relationship between the microstructure of Pt1/MnO and its catalytic activity was analyzed by density function theory (DFT) simulation calculation. Compared with MnO, Pt1/MnO had a relative lower work function, meaning that Pt1/MnO had a much better catalytic activity toward TRR. The density of states (DOS) results indicated that single-atom Pt...