Atomically Dispersed Cu–N–C as a Promising Support for Low-Pt Loading Cathode Catalysts of Fuel Cells

Abstract

It is of great significance to reduce the amount of platinum for the oxygen reduction reaction (ORR) in polymer electrolyte membrane fuel cells. In this work, a copper single atom coordinated by nitrogen doped carbon nanotubes is employed as a support for the deposition of platinum nanoparticles (Pt/Cu-SAC), according to the prediction of the density functional theory calculation, which reveals the ORR activity of Pt/Cu-SAC should be improved in comparison to that of Pt/C due to the weaker adsorption of oxygen. The prepared Pt/Cu-SAC exhibits more promising ORR activity than the commercial Pt/C due to the synergetic effect of Cu-SAC on the Pt particles. Furthermore, the fuel cell based on Pt/Cu-SAC with a cathode Pt loading of 0.025 mg cm −2 exhibits a peak power density of 526 mW cm −2 , which is quite similar to that obtained with the commercial Pt/C with a cathode Pt loading of 0.1 mg cm −2 . The Pt/Cu-SAC paves the way to design low-Pt cathode catalysts for the polymer electrolyte membrane fuel cells.

Co–N–C-Supported Platinum Catalyst: Synergistic Effect on the Aerobic Oxidation of Glycerol

“…As shown in Figure S12, we have not observed any notable shift of Pt4f peaks of 5Pt/CoNC@CNT compared to 5Pt/CNT, indicating the negligible electronic modification to Pt in our study. This result is consistent with the DFT study by Cui et al 50 According to their calculation, the Pt 7 cluster has close charge as supported on a graphene sheet with or without a CoN 4 site and therefore has similar adsorption energy for oxygen and ORR activity.…”

“…6 Recently, with the assistance of density functional theory (DFT) calculation, Cu−N−C was determined as a suitable support for lowering the adsorption energy of oxygen on Pt, thereby improving the ORR activity. 50 The synergistic effect of Co−N−C-supported PtCo catalysts has been clearly revealed by Chong et al 51 At the interface between Co−N 4decorated graphene and Pt 3 Co NPs, the Co−N 4 sites generated H 2 O 2 and facilitated its transfer to Pt sites and sequent reduction, leading to the significantly enhanced activity at low Pt loadings. However, to the best of our knowledge, the synergistic effect of Pt and Me−N−C SACs has not been employed to improve heterogeneous thermocatalytic reactions yet.…”

“…Fe–N–C has been adopted as supports of Pt for the ORR, benefited from the homogeneous dispersion of Pt and the electronic MSI between Pt and Fe–N–C. , Similarly, Ni–N–C has been reported as a support of Pt NPs outperforming commercial Pt/C at lower Pt loadings . Recently, with the assistance of density functional theory (DFT) calculation, Cu–N–C was determined as a suitable support for lowering the adsorption energy of oxygen on Pt, thereby improving the ORR activity . The synergistic effect of Co–N–C-supported PtCo catalysts has been clearly revealed by Chong et al At the interface between Co–N 4 -decorated graphene and Pt 3 Co NPs, the Co–N 4 sites generated H 2 O 2 and facilitated its transfer to Pt sites and sequent reduction, leading to the significantly enhanced activity at low Pt loadings.…”

MOF-derived electrochemical catalyst Cu–N/C for the enhancement of amperometric oxygen detection

“…[39][40][41][42][43] Apart from the fact that Fe and Co have been widely investigated as transition metal electrochemical catalysts, it was found that Cu-embedded catalysts possess higher catalysis performance with higher conductivity and enhanced charge transfer and hence can be considered as a promising candidate. [44][45][46][47] In addition, owing to the high surface area provided by the porous nanocarbon structure, Cu and N codoped carbon (Cu-N/C) catalysts are sought after due to their satisfactory catalysis performance. 48,49 As simply prepared templates for carbon catalyst materials, metal-organic frameworks (MOFs) can be constructed with microscopic porous carbon matrices and are preferred for manufacturing Cu-N/C catalysts.…”

Pt Nanoparticles Dispersed on Ni/C Nanoflowers as Stable Electrocatalysts for Methanol Oxidation and Oxygen Reduction

“…Still, the high surface energy of Pt–M NPs may also cause the migration, aggregation, and dissolution of NPs under DMFC operating conditions . In this case, transition metals/carbon materials are expected as promising supports to develop high-performance Pt-based electrocatalysts with low cost, good synergistic effect, excellent activity, and durability. − Typically, Fan et al reported the better oxidative removal of CO-like species at lower potential and decreased Pt quantity in electrocatalyst for MOR when Co/MWCNTs is employed to load Pt nanoparticles (NPs). In this regard, transition metal/carbon composites (M/C, like Fe/C, Co/C, Ni/C, and Cu/C) − derived from their corresponding metal–organic framework (MOF) precursors have amazing potentials to function as stable supports because of the uniformly dispersed metal NPs in carbon structure to anchor Pt NPs. − Nevertheless, a simple and efficient strategy to realize well-dispersed Pt NPs on M/C while preserving their original morphology with ultrahigh surface areas, large porosity, and tunable functionality is still a challenge to obtain outstanding electrocatalysts.…”