The oxygen reduction on Pt-Ni and Pt-Ni-M catalysts for low-temperature acidic fuel cells: A review

Abstract

Summary For its wide availability and low cost, nickel is a promising candidate to be used as a cocatalyst in Pt‐based catalysts for proton exchange membrane fuel cells. Among Pt‐M (M = transition metal) catalysts for oxygen reduction, Pt‐Ni is the one which can be used in various forms, that is, as disordered Pt1‐xNix solid solutions, ordered intermetallic phases, octahedral‐shaped structures (with a preferential {111} facet orientation), dealloyed structures, and hollow and 1‐dimensional nanostructures. In this work, an overview of the oxygen reduction on Pt‐Ni and Pt‐Ni‐M (M = Co, Fe, Cu) catalysts and their stability in proton exchange membrane fuel cell environment is presented.

Size, Composition, and Support-Doping Effects on Oxygen Reduction Activity of Platinum-Alloy and on non-Platinum Metal-Decorated-Graphene Nanocatalysts

“…[1,2] Following the approach from, these adsorption energies were transformed into catalytic activities and an electrochemical volcano plot was created, allowing to identify the best graphene-supported 4-atom intermetallic nanoparticles. [1][2][3][4][5][100][101][102] In this work, those best candidates were further studied for size and composition dependence, by increasing the number of atoms to 7 and 19 (considered to have higher stability than other particle sizes). [1,2,6,[103][104][105] The composition of these particles was kept close to the original 4-atom ones, by using a ratio of 5:2 in the 7 atom particles, and 14:5 in the 19 atom nanoparticles.…”

Computationally Generated Maps of Surface Structures and Catalytic Activities for Alloy Phase Diagrams

“…We demonstrate our approach on the (111) surfaces of Pt-Ni alloys, which have drawn much attention as promising catalysts for the oxygen reduction reaction (ORR) at the cathode of fuel cells (10)(11)(12). In 2007 specific activity of 18 mA/cm 2 (about 10 times that of a pure Pt surface) was demonstrated on a Pt-rich Pt3Ni(111) surface (13).…”

“…In 2007 specific activity of 18 mA/cm 2 (about 10 times that of a pure Pt surface) was demonstrated on a Pt-rich Pt3Ni(111) surface (13). Despite extensive efforts (10)(11)(12)(14)(15)(16)(17)(18)(19), this level of activity has not been achieved by any other catalyst. Previous computational studies have shown that the catalytic activity of the Pt3Ni(111) surface is strongly influenced by the arrangement of near-surface atoms (5,20,21).…”

Nanostructured ultrathin catalyst layer with ordered platinum nanotube arrays for polymer electrolyte membrane fuel cells

“…However, their high cost, especially because of the massive use of the scarce Pt-group metal (PGM) in the catalyst layers is one of the major obstacles for the commercialization of PEMFCs [5][6][7] . Intensive efforts have been devoted to developing inexpensive catalysts for fuel cell applications in the last decade, including Pt-transition metal alloys [8][9][10] , core-shell [9,11,12] nanostructured catalysts [9,13,14] , and non-precious metal catalysts [8,15,16] . Although great achievements have been made in half-cell measurements, there are challenges in fuel cell application, especially with regard to mass transport and durability [17,18] .…”