Platinum-trimer decorated cobalt-palladium core-shell nanocatalyst with promising performance for oxygen reduction reaction

Abstract

Advanced electrocatalysts with low platinum content, high activity and durability for the oxygen reduction reaction can benefit the widespread commercial use of fuel cell technology. Here, we report a platinum-trimer decorated cobalt-palladium core-shell nanocatalyst with a low platinum loading of only 2.4 wt% for the use in alkaline fuel cell cathodes. This ternary catalyst shows a mass activity that is enhanced by a factor of 30.6 relative to a commercial platinum catalyst, which is attributed to the unique charge localization induced by platinum-trimer decoration. The high stability of the decorated trimers endows the catalyst with an outstanding durability, maintaining decent electrocatalytic activity with no degradation for more than 322,000 potential cycles in alkaline electrolyte. These findings are expected to be useful for surface engineering and design of advanced fuel cell catalysts with atomic-scale platinum decoration.

Uncovering near-free platinum single-atom dynamics during electrochemical hydrogen evolution reaction

“…As shown in Fig. 1e inset, the intensity of the oscillation hump (H P ) decreases with the increased potential, confirming dynamically disordered structures around the Pt atom 33 . Note that the above evolutions of the atomic and electronic structures are reversible as demonstrated in Supplementary Fig.…”

“…Figure 1d shows the evolutions of normalized Pt L 3 -edge X-ray absorption near-edge structure (XANES) spectra with applied potential. The XANES spectrum of catalyst is characterized by the strong white-line peak, which corresponds to transition from the occupied Pt 2p 3/2 core-electron to empty 5d states, and thus is indicative of 5d-band occupancy 33,34 . It can be obviously discerned that the overall white-line intensity (H A ) decreases as applying negative potential during the reaction (Fig.…”

Synthetic strategies of supported atomic clusters for heterogeneous catalysis

“…Chen et al prepared Pt 3 decorated Co@Pd nanocatalyst by reducing Co, Pd, and Pt in sequence 31 . In this method, the short reduction time of Pt (10 s) was vital for the formation of Pt 3 clusters.…”

“…Then, new strategies that can afford large-scale metal clusters were proposed. These synthetic methods include precursor-preselected strategy 18,26,27 , host-guest strategy 19,28,29 , wet chemical reduction 30,31 , dendrimerbased 32,33 , and atomic layer deposition method 34 . Considerable scientists have focused on the support effects and dynamic behavior of supported atomic clusters during heterogeneous catalytic processes via in situ techniques and theoretical calculations [35][36][37][38] .…”

Role of Substrate in Au Nanoparticle Decoration by Electroless Deposition

“…Metal decoration of nanostructures is emerging as a promising methodology for adding functionalities and developing materials properties, with applications to electronics, sensing, catalysis, and computing industries [1][2][3][4][5][6][7]. Nanostructures covered with metal nanoparticles interest the scientific community also for basic understanding in synthesis and functional properties.…”