Enhanced Oxygen Reduction Reaction Performance by Adsorbed Water on Edge Sites

• Published in: ACS applied materials & interfaces Vol. 15; no. 17; pp. 21049 - 21056
• Main Authors: Yu, Shengwei, Chen, Liyuan, Cheng, Na, Lu, Jiyuan, Bi, Liyuan, Zhang, Wenhui, Chen, Aiping, Jiang, Haibo, Li, Chunzhong
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: United States American Chemical Society 03.05.2023
• Subjects: Energy, Environmental, and Catalysis Applications; step site; electron interaction; adsorbed water; oxygen reduction reaction; platinum-based alloys
• ISSN: 1944-8244; 1944-8252
• DOI: 10.1021/acsami.3c01470

Pt-based alloy nanoparticles have broad application prospects as cathode catalyst materials for proton-exchange membrane fuel cells (PEMFCs). Optimization of the oxygen adsorption energy is crucial to boost the performance of oxygen reduction catalysis. We successfully synthesized well-dispersed Pt1.2Ni tetrahedra and obtained the Pt1.2Ni/C catalyst adopting the one-pot synthetic protocol, which exhibits superb activity and good long-term stability for oxygen reduction reaction (ORR), achieving a mass activity of 1.53 A/mgPt at 0.90 VRHE, which is 12 times higher than that of commercial Pt/C. On combining X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy and density functional theory calculations, abundant water is adsorbed stably on the Pt1.2Ni alloy surface. We find that the intense interaction between the adsorbed O atom and adsorbed water can weaken the adsorption of oxygen, contributing to the ORR performance.