Hot Injection Assisted Electronically Modulated Twin and Grain Boundary Rich Sub-2 nm PtCo Alloy Resistant to Phosphate Ion for PEMFCs.
Journal:
Small (Weinheim an der Bergstrasse, Germany)
Published Date:
Mar 27, 2025
Abstract
Modulation of the electronic d-band center, structural defects (line defects), and particle size of PtCo alloy electrocatalyst have huge significance in elevating its electrochemical oxygen reduction reaction activity. Deviating from traditional high-temperature strategies, the current work focuses on ripening these benefits by implying a simple economically viable hot-injection-assisted modified polyol process. A conclusive control over decrementing particle size starting from 2.7 to 1.3 nm, an increasing degree of strain (twin boundary), and shifting of the d-band center away from the Fermi level are obtained via varying the temperature to which the solution is injected. The catalyst prepared via the injection at 200 °C (PtCo/fVC-200) has delivered an electrochemical surface area of 84 m with the onset and half-wave potentials of 0.980 and 0.858 V, respectively, versus RHE and a limiting current of -6.0 mA cm with stability till 20k cycles. In the high-temperature proton exchange membrane fuel cell PtCo/fVC-200-based cell has outperformed Pt/C rendering 600 mWcm under H-Air compared to 529 mWcm of Pt/C with 20% lower Pt loading and double the stability due to enhanced resistance toward phosphoric acid for accelerated voltage cycling. A similar enhancement is seen while employing the catalyst for low-temperature fuel cells.
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