Nanoporous PtFe Nanoparticles Supported on N-Doped Porous Carbon Sheets Derived from Metal-Organic Frameworks as Highly Efficient and Durable Oxygen Reduction Reaction Catalysts

Kang Yang; Peng Jiang; Jitang Chen; Qianwang Chen

doi:10.1021/acsami.7b09428

Nanoporous PtFe Nanoparticles Supported on N-Doped Porous Carbon Sheets Derived from Metal-Organic Frameworks as Highly Efficient and Durable Oxygen Reduction Reaction Catalysts

ACS Appl Mater Interfaces. 2017 Sep 20;9(37):32106-32113. doi: 10.1021/acsami.7b09428. Epub 2017 Sep 5.

Authors

Kang Yang¹, Peng Jiang¹, Jitang Chen¹, Qianwang Chen^{1

2}

Affiliations

¹ Hefei National Laboratory for Physical Science at Microscale, Department of Materials Science & Engineering, and Collaborative Innovation Center of Suzhou Nano Science and Technology, University of Science and Technology of China , Hefei 230026, China.
² The Anhui Key Laboratory of Condensed Mater Physics at Extreme Conditions, High Magnetic Field Laboratory, Hefei Institutes of Physical Science, Chinese Academy of Sciences , Hefei 230031, China.

PMID: 28841004
DOI: 10.1021/acsami.7b09428

Abstract

Designing and exploring catalysts with high activity and stability for oxygen reduction reaction (ORR) at the cathode in acidic environments is imperative for the industrialization of proton exchange membrane fuel cells (PEMFCs). Theoretical calculations and experiments have demonstrated that alloying Pt with a transition metal can not only cut down the usage of scarce Pt metal but also improve performance of mass activity compared with pure Pt. Herein, we exhibit the preparation of nanoporous PtFe nanoparticles (np-PtFe NPs) supported on N-doped porous carbon sheets (NPCS) via facile in situ thermolysis of a Pt-modified Fe-based metal-organic framework (MOF). The np-PtFe/NPCS exhibit a more positive half-wave potential (0.92 V) compared with commercial Pt/C catalyst (0.883 V). The nanoporous structure allows our catalyst to possess high mass activity, which is found to be 0.533 A·mg_Pt^-1 and 3.04 times better than that of Pt/C (0.175 A·mg_Pt^-1). Moreover, the conversion of PtFe NPs from porous to hollow structure can maintain the activity of electrocatalyst. Our strategy provides a facile design and synthesis process of noble-transition metal alloy electrocatalysts via noble metal modified MOFs as precursors.

Keywords: ORR; alloy; bimetallic; metal−organic framework; nanoporous.