Toward the Continuous Production of Multigram Quantities of Highly Uniform Supported Metallic Nanoparticles and Their Application for Synthesis of Superior Intermetallic Pt-Alloy ORR Electrocatalysts

Luka Pavko; Matija Gatalo; Gregor Križan; Janez Križan; Konrad Ehelebe; Francisco Ruiz-Zepeda; Martin Šala; Goran Dražić; Moritz Geuß; Pascal Kaiser; Marjan Bele; Mitja Kostelec; Tina Đukić; Nigel Van de Velde; Ivan Jerman; Serhiy Cherevko; Nejc Hodnik; Boštjan Genorio; Miran Gaberšček

doi:10.1021/acsaem.1c02570

Toward the Continuous Production of Multigram Quantities of Highly Uniform Supported Metallic Nanoparticles and Their Application for Synthesis of Superior Intermetallic Pt-Alloy ORR Electrocatalysts

ACS Appl Energy Mater. 2021 Dec 27;4(12):13819-13829. doi: 10.1021/acsaem.1c02570. Epub 2021 Nov 23.

Authors

Luka Pavko^{1

2}, Matija Gatalo^{1

3}, Gregor Križan⁴, Janez Križan⁴, Konrad Ehelebe^{5

6}, Francisco Ruiz-Zepeda¹, Martin Šala⁷, Goran Dražić¹, Moritz Geuß^{5

6}, Pascal Kaiser^{5

6}, Marjan Bele¹, Mitja Kostelec^{1

2}, Tina Đukić^{1

2}, Nigel Van de Velde¹, Ivan Jerman¹, Serhiy Cherevko⁵, Nejc Hodnik¹, Boštjan Genorio², Miran Gaberšček¹

Affiliations

¹ Department of Materials Chemistry, National Institute of Chemistry, Hajdrihova 19, 1001 Ljubljana, Slovenia.
² Faculty of Chemistry and Chemical Technology, University of Ljubljana, 1001 Ljubljana, Slovenia.
³ ReCatalyst d.o.o., Hajdrihova 19, 1001 Ljubljana, Slovenia.
⁴ Ami d.o.o., Trstenjakova 5, 2250 Ptuj, Slovenia.
⁵ Helmholtz-Institute Erlangen-Nürnberg for Renewable Energy (IEK-11), Forschungszentrum Jülich GmbH, Egerlandstr.3, 91058 Erlangen, Germany.
⁶ Department of Chemical and Biological Engineering, Friedrich-Alexander University Erlangen-Nürnberg, Egerlandstr. 3, 91058 Erlangen, Germany.
⁷ Department of Analytical Chemistry, National Institute of Chemistry, Hajdrihova 19, 1001 Ljubljana, Slovenia.

Abstract

A fast and facile pulse combustion (PC) method that allows for the continuous production of multigram quantities of high-metal-loaded and highly uniform supported metallic nanoparticles (SMNPs) is presented. Namely, various metal on carbon (M/C) composites have been prepared by using only three feedstock components: water, metal-salt, and the supporting material. The present approach can be elegantly utilized also for numerous other applications in electrocatalysis, heterogeneous catalysis, and sensors. In this study, the PC-prepared M/C composites were used as metal precursors for the Pt NPs deposition using double passivation with the galvanic displacement method (DP method). Lastly, by using thin-film rotating disc electrode (TF-RDE) and gas-diffusion electrode (GDE) methodologies, we show that the synergistic effects of combining PC technology with the DP method enable production of superior intermetallic Pt-M electrocatalysts with an improved oxygen reduction reaction (ORR) performance when compared to a commercial Pt-Co electrocatalyst for proton exchange membrane fuel cells (PEMFCs) application.