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Activity, Stability, and Degradation Mechanisms of Dealloyed PtCu 3 and PtCo 3 Nanoparticle Fuel Cell Catalysts
Author(s) -
Hasché Frédéric,
Oezaslan Mehtap,
Strasser Peter
Publication year - 2011
Publication title -
chemcatchem
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.497
H-Index - 106
eISSN - 1867-3899
pISSN - 1867-3880
DOI - 10.1002/cctc.201100169
Subject(s) - catalysis , materials science , electrochemistry , fuel cells , nanoparticle , degradation (telecommunications) , electrocatalyst , alloy , nanotechnology , chemical engineering , reversible hydrogen electrode , monolayer , electrode , chemistry , metallurgy , working electrode , computer science , telecommunications , biochemistry , engineering
A key challenge in today’s fuel cell research is the understanding and maintaining the durability of the structure and performance of initially highly active Pt fuel cell electrocatalysts, such as dealloyed Pt or Pt monolayer catalysts. Here, we present a comparative long‐term stability and activity study of supported dealloyed PtCu 3 and PtCo 3 nanoparticle fuel cell catalysts for the oxygen reduction reaction (ORR) and benchmark them to a commercial Pt catalyst. PtCu 3 and PtCo 3 were subjected to two distinctly different voltage cycling tests: the “lifetime” regime [10 000 cycles, 0.5–1.0 V vs. RHE (reversible hydrogen electrode), 50 mV s −1 ] and the corrosive “start‐up” regime (2000 cycles, 0.5–1.5 V vs. RHE, 50 mV s −1 ). Our results highlight significant activity and stability benefits of dealloyed PtCu 3 and PtCo 3 for the ORR compared with those of pure Pt. In particular, after testing in the “lifetime” regime, the Pt‐surface‐area‐based activity of the Pt alloy catalysts is still two times higher than that of pure Pt. From our electrochemical, morphological, and compositional results, we provide a general picture of the temporal sequence of dominant degradation mechanisms of a Pt alloy catalyst during its life cycle.