Mesostructured Intermetallic Compounds of Platinum and Non‐Transition Metals for Enhanced Electrocatalysis of Oxygen Reduction Reaction

Abstract

Alloying techniques show genuine potential to develop more effective catalysts than Pt for oxygen reduction reaction (ORR), which is the key challenge in many important electrochemical energy conversion and storage devices, such as fuel cells and metal‐air batteries. Tremendous efforts have been made to improve ORR activity by designing bimetallic nanocatalysts, which have been limited to only alloys of platinum and transition metals (TMs). The Pt‐TM alloys suffer from critical durability in acid‐media fuel cells. Here a new class of mesostructured Pt–Al catalysts is reported, consisting of atomic‐layer‐thick Pt skin and Pt3Al or Pt5Al intermetallic compound skeletons for the enhanced ORR performance. As a result of strong Pt–Al bonds that inhibit the evolution of Pt skin and produce ligand and compressive strain effects, the Pt3Al and Pt5Al mesoporous catalysts are exceptionally durable and ≈6.3‐ and ≈5.0‐fold more active than the state‐of‐the‐art Pt/C catalyst at 0.90 V, respectively. The high performance makes them promising candidates as cathode nanocatalysts in next‐generation fuel cells.

Porous Mn2O3: A Low‐Cost Electrocatalyst for Oxygen Reduction Reaction in Alkaline Media with Comparable Activity to Pt/C

“…This result indicates that Mn 2 O 3 has a higher stability than Pt/C in alkaline solution. In direct methanol fuel cells (DMFCs), methanol could reach the cathode through the polymer electrolyte membrane, which may decrease the performance of the catalysts. Therefore, methanol tolerance is very important in the application of ORR catalysts .…”

Engineering Ordered and Nonordered Porous Noble Metal Nanostructures: Synthesis, Assembly, and Their Applications in Electrochemistry

“…138 These results will contribute greatly to the understanding of the size−morphology− composition relationships associated with morphological evolution from different dimension levels, providing detailed information about the dealloyed NPs and the bulk porous materials. A large number of bimetallic materials with porous nanostructures, such as PdNi, 139 PdCu, 140 PdPd, 141 PtNi, 142 AuPt, 143 and PtAl, 144 were successfully synthesized by dealloying and used as advanced electrocatalysts in fuel cells.…”

Use of Cobalt Polyphthalocyanine and Graphene as Precursors to Construct an Efficient Co9S8/N,S‐G Electrocatalyst for the Oxygen Electrode Reaction in Harsh Media

“…RuO 2 and IrO 2 are active for the OER. [5][6][7] However,t he instability and low tolerance to CO and methanolo fP ta nd the high cost of these preciousm etals constrain large-scale applications. [8] Consequently,t he development of efficient, durable, and preciousmetal-free catalysts is desirable but challenging.…”