Acta Phys. -Chim. Sin. ›› 2017, Vol. 33 ›› Issue (2): 283-294.doi: 10.3866/PKU.WHXB201611071

• FEATURE ARTICLE • Previous Articles     Next Articles

Pd-Containing Core/Pt-Based Shell Structured Electrocatalysts

Yang Lü1,Yu-Jiang SONG1,Hui-Yuan LIU1,2,3,Huan-Qiao LI2()   

  1. 1 State Key Laboratory of Fine Chemicals, School of Chemical Engineering, Dalian University of Technology, Dalian 116024, Liaoning Province, P. R. China
    2 Dalian Institute of Chemical Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Dalian 116023, Liaoning Province, P. R. China
    3 University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100049, P. R. China
  • Received:2016-08-08 Published:2017-01-12
  • Contact: Huan-Qiao LI E-mail:yjsong@dlut.edu.cn
  • Supported by:
    The project was supported by the National Key Research & Development Program of China(2016YFB0101307);National Key Basic Research Program of China (973)(2012CB215502);National Natural Science Foundation of China(21003114,21103163,21306188,21373211,21306187);Liaoning BaiQianWan Talents Program, China(201519);Program for Liaoning Excellent Talents in University, China(LR2015014);Dalian Excellent Young Scientific and Technological Talents, China(2015R006);Fundamental Research Funds for the Central Universities, China(DUT15RC(3)001,DUT15ZD225)

Abstract:

Fuel cell vehicles (FCVs) have been a burgeoning industry in China, and are currently on the verge of widespread commercialization. The platinum-based electrocatalyst is one of the key materials in proton exchange membrane fuel cells (PEMFCs). The relatively low activity and durability, and high cost of the electrocatalyst impede the further development of PEMFCs as a clean energy technology. It has been widely anticipated that core-shell structured low-platinum electrocatalysts with high performance toward oxygen reduction reaction (ORR) will eventually resolve this bottleneck issue. Regardless of significant progress, there are still many remaining issues, such as complicated synthesis route, the large sizes of core materials like Pd, and lack of macroscopic characterization of the core-shell structures. Herein, we introduce two new synthetic methods (one pot synthesis and regioselective atomic layer deposition (ALD) combined with a wet chemical method) for the fabrication of core-shell structured Pd3Au@Pt/C electrocatalysts with high ORR performance. These two synthetic approaches allow us to well control the diameter of the core nanoparticle to around 5 nm. Cyclic voltammetry (CV) and formic acid oxidation reaction (FAOR) were found to be suitable for investigating the integrity of the Pt shell on the core particles. This work represents a new avenue for the macroscopic characterization of the core-shell structured electrocatalysts with Pd or Pd alloy as the core material.

Key words: Proton exchange membrane fuel cell, Core-shell structured electrocatalyst, Oxygen reduction reaction, Formic acid oxidation reaction, Durability