Carbon supported PtPdCr ternary alloy nanoparticles with enhanced electrocatalytic activity and durability for methanol oxidation reaction

Publications

Carbon supported PtPdCr ternary alloy nanoparticles with enhanced electrocatalytic activity and durability for methanol oxidation reaction

Year : 2020

Publisher : Elsevier Ltd

Source Title : International Journal of Hydrogen Energy

Document Type :

Abstract

In this work, the trimetallic PtPdCr nanoparticles with low platinum loading (~5 wt%) supported on Vulcan carbon (PtPdCr/C) were synthesized through a facile two-step co-reduction method and showed superior methanol oxidation activity. The particle size distribution, morphology and elemental composition of the PtPdCr/C were investigated by transmission electron microscopy (TEM), X-ray diffraction (XRD) and X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) analysis. The electrochemical performance for methanol oxidation of the PtPdCr/C was found to be higher with the mass activity of 969 mA·mg−1Pt compared to Pt/C (581 mA·mg−1Pt) and PtRu/C (725 mA·mg−1Pt). Moreover, the stability studies confirmed the enhanced durability of PtPdCr/C over Pt/C and PtRu/C catalysts after the accelerated durability test (ADT) and chronoamperometry (CA) analysis. The increased methanol oxidation activity and durability of the trimetallic PtPdCr/C in acid medium can be attributed to the change in binding energy of Pt and the induced synergistic effect from Pd and Cr atoms to Pt, which demonstrated a promising strategy for the preparation and utilization of ternary alloy catalysts towards methanol electrooxidation.