High Oxygen Reduction Activity of Pt-Ni Alloy Catalyst for Proton Exchange Membrane Fuel Cells

In order to fill the research gap of high metal loading of high performance PtNi alloy catalysts, a PtNi/C alloy nano-catalyst with metal loading more than 50 wt.% and core-shell like structure was prepared by ethylene glycol reduction, high temperature annealing, and acid pickling. The electrochemi...

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Bibliographic Details
Main Authors: Jun Gu, Guang-Meng Zhang, Rui Yao, Tao Yu, Meng-Fei Han, Run-Sheng Huang
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: MDPI AG 2022-02-01
Series:Catalysts
Subjects:
Online Access:https://www.mdpi.com/2073-4344/12/3/250
Description
Summary:In order to fill the research gap of high metal loading of high performance PtNi alloy catalysts, a PtNi/C alloy nano-catalyst with metal loading more than 50 wt.% and core-shell like structure was prepared by ethylene glycol reduction, high temperature annealing, and acid pickling. The electrochemical test results showed that the prepared PtNi alloy catalyst had excellent electrochemical activity: the electrochemical surface area (ECSA) was 63.8 m<sup>2</sup>·g<sub>Pt</sub><sup>−1</sup>, and the mass activity (MA) was 0.574 A·mg<sub>Pt</sub><sup>−1</sup>, which is 2.73 times greater than those of the Pt/C JM (Johnson Matthey) catalyst. The durability of the PtNi/C catalyst was further investigated. After 30 K cycles of accelerated durability test, the ECSA and MA of the PtNi/C alloy catalyst decreased by 10.2% and 31.2%, respectively. The PtNi/C alloy catalyst prepared in this study has excellent catalytic activity and overcomes the problem of insufficient durability of traditional alloy catalysts and has the potential for large-scale commercial application.
ISSN:2073-4344