Abstract
Carbon-supported Pt nanoparticles are used as catalysts for a variety of reactions including the oxygen reduction reaction (ORR) key to proton-exchange membrane fuel cells, but their catalytic performance has long been plagued by detachment and sintering. Here we report the in situ growth of sub-2 nm Pt particles on a commercial carbon support via the galvanic reaction between a Pt(II) precursor and a uniform film of amorphous Se predeposited on the support. The residual Se could serve as a linker to strongly anchor the Pt nanoparticles to the carbon surface, leading to a catalytic system with extraordinary activity and durability toward ORR. Even after 20 000 cycles of accelerated durability test, the sub-2 nm Pt particles were still dispersed well on the carbon support and maintained a mass activity more than three-times as high as the pristine value of a commercial Pt/C catalyst.
| Original language | English |
|---|---|
| Pages (from-to) | 4997-5002 |
| Number of pages | 6 |
| Journal | Nano Letters |
| Volume | 19 |
| Issue number | 8 |
| DOIs | |
| State | Published - Aug 14 2019 |
Funding
This work was supported in part by startup funds from the Georgia Institute of Technology. As a visiting graduate student from Central China Normal University, H.C. was also partially supported by a fellowship from China Scholarship Council (CSC). The microscopy work was performed through a user project supported by the ORNL’s Center for Nanophase Materials Sciences, which is a U.S. Department of Energy Office of Science User Facility.
Keywords
- Oxygen reduction reaction
- Pt nanoparticles
- catalytic durability
- galvanic reaction
- selenium