Regulating electrocatalytic properties of oxygen reduction reaction via strong coupling effects between Co-NC sites and intermetallic Pt3Co

• Published in: Applied catalysis. B, Environmental Vol. 346; p. 123740
• Main Authors: Xiao, Weiping, Yan, Daqiang, Zhao, Qin, Bukhvalov, Danil, Yang, Xiaofei
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Elsevier B.V 05.06.2024
• Subjects: Catalysis; Co-NC sites; Coupling effects; Intermetallic Pt alloy; Oxygen reduction reaction; Intermetallic Pt alloy; Co-NC sites; Coupling effects; Catalysis; Oxygen reduction reaction
• ISSN: 0926-3373; 1873-3883
• DOI: 10.1016/j.apcatb.2024.123740

Developing the Pt-based intermetallic nanoparticles could accelerate the sluggish kinetic of oxygen reduction reaction, while it remains a great challenge to explore efficient synthesis strategies enhancing thermal stabilities and electrocatalytic properties. This work employed the metal-support coupling strategy to construct the Pt3Co/CoNC hierarchical nanostructure, where the well-dispersed atomically ordered Pt3Co nanoparticles were anchored on the Co-NC sites. Physical structure analysis combined with density functional theory calculations demonstrated the strong coupling effect between Pt and surrounding Co-NC sites, which could weaken the activation energy to break O-O bonds and enhance the intrinsic activity and stability of Pt. Hence, the Pt3Co/CoNC exhibited the optimized ORR activities with the half-wave potentials of 0.97 V in KOH solution and displayed the peak power density of 187 mW cm−2 as the cathode of Zn-air battery. This metal-support coupling strategy can be further generalized and improved to synthesize other Pt-based catalysts with efficient electrocatalytic properties. [Display omitted] •The metal-support coupling strategy was employed to construct the Pt3Co/CoNC hierarchical nanostructure.•The well-dispersed atomically ordered Pt3Co nanoparticles were anchored on the Co-NC sites.•The Pt3Co/CoNC nanostructure shows enhanced electrocatalytic properties toward oxygen reduction reaction and Zn-air battery.•Physical structure analysis combined with DFT demonstrated the strong coupling effect between Pt and surrounding Co-NC sites.•The metal-support interaction could lower the energy barrier to break O-O bonds and enhance the activity and stability of Pt.