The oxygen reduction reaction (ORR) is of great interest for future sustainable energy conversion and storage, especially concerning fuel cell applications. The preparation of active, affordable, and scalable electrocatalysts and their application in fuel cell engines of hydrogen cars is a prominent step toward the reduction of air pollution, especially in urban areas. Alloying nanostructured Pt with lanthanides is a promising approach to enhance its catalytic ORR activity, whereby the development of a simple synthetic route turned out to be a nontrivial endeavor. Herein, for the first time, we present a successful single-step, scalable top-down synthetic route for Pt-lanthanide alloy nanoparticles, as witnessed by the example of Pr-alloyed Pt nanoparticles. The catalyst was characterized by high-resolution transmission electron microscopy, energy-dispersive X-ray spectroscopy, X-ray diffraction, and photoelectron spectroscopy, and its electrocatalytic oxygen reduction activity was investigated using a rotating disk electrode technique. Pt xPr/C showed ∼3.5 times higher [1.96 mA/cm2Pt, 0.9 V vs reversible hydrogen electrode (RHE)] specific activity and ∼1.7 times higher (0.7 A/mgPt, 0.9 V vs RHE) mass activity compared to commercial Pt/C catalysts. On the basis of previous findings and characterization of the Pt xPr/C catalyst, the activity improvement over commercial Pt/C originates from a lattice strain introduced by the alloying process.

Central European Institute of Technology Brno University of Technology Purkynova 123 612 00 Brno Czech Republic

Nanosystems Initiative Munich Schellingstraße 4 80799 Munich Germany

Physics of Energy Conversion and Storage Technical University of Munich James Franck Straße 1 85748 Garching Germany

Univ Grenoble Alpes Univ Savoie Mont Blanc CNRS Grenoble INP LEPMI 38000 Grenoble France

Walter Schottky Institute Technical University of Munich Am Coulombwall 4a 85748 Garching Germany

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Top-down Surfactant-Free Synthesis of Supported Palladium-Nanostructured Catalysts