Efficient synthesis of Pt-Co nanowires as cathode catalysts for proton exchange membrane fuel cells

Zhikun Liu; Yanhong Yin; Daijun Yang; Cunman Zhang; Pingwen Ming; Bing Li; Shuting Yang

doi:10.1039/d0ra00264j

Efficient synthesis of Pt-Co nanowires as cathode catalysts for proton exchange membrane fuel cells

RSC Adv. 2020 Feb 10;10(11):6287-6296. doi: 10.1039/d0ra00264j. eCollection 2020 Feb 7.

Authors

Zhikun Liu^{1

2}, Yanhong Yin^{1

2}, Daijun Yang³, Cunman Zhang³, Pingwen Ming³, Bing Li³, Shuting Yang^{1

2}

Affiliations

¹ School of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering, Henan Normal University Xinxiang Henan 453007 China shutingyang@foxmail.com.
² Collaborative Innovation Center of Henan Province for Motive Power and Key Materials, Henan Normal University Xinxiang Henan 453007 China.
³ Clean Energy Automotive Engineering Center and School of Automotive Studies, Tongji University Shanghai 201804 China libing210@tongji.edu.cn.

Abstract

A simple and efficient method was used to prepare highly active and durable carbon-supported ultrathin Pt-Co nanowires (NWs) as oxygen reduction reaction (ORR) catalysts for the cathode in a proton exchange membrane fuel cell (PEMFC). Chromium hexacarbonyl plays a significant role in making Pt and Co form an alloyed NW, which acts as both a reducing agent and a structure directing agent. The nanocrystal exhibits a uniform nanowire morphology with a diameter of 2 nm and a length of 30 nm. In half cell tests, the Pt-Co NWs/C catalyst has a mass activity of 291.4 mA mg_Pt ^-1, which is significantly better than commercial Pt/C catalysts with 85.5 mA mg_Pt ^-1. And after the accelerated durability test (ADT), Pt-Co NWs/C shows an electrochemically active surface area (ECSA) loss of 19.1% while the loss in the commercial catalyst is 41.8%. Also, the membrane electrode assembly (MEA) was prepared using Pt-Co NWs/C as the cathode catalyst, resulting in a maximum power density of 952 mW cm^-2, which is higher than that of Pt/C. These results indicate that the one-dimensional structure of the catalyst prepared herein is favorable to improve the activity and durability, and the application of the catalyst in the MEA is also realized.