Microporous 3D-Structured Hierarchically Entangled Graphene-Supported Pt3Co Alloy Catalyst for PEMFC Application with Process-Friendly Features

Designing Flexible Carbon Nanofiber Membranes by Electrospinning and Cross-Linking for Proton Exchange Membrane Fuel Cells

Traditional carbon-based materials suffer from fragility, low mechanical strength, and electrical conductivity when they are used as a gas diffusion layer (GDL) in proton exchange membrane fuel cells (PEMFCs), resulting in low power density. In this study, a flexible carbon nanofiber membrane (CFM) was studied for use as a GDL, prepared by polyacrylonitrile (PAN) electrospinning with the incorporation of carboxylated multiwalled carbon nanotubes (MWCNTs), polyethylenimine (PEI) impregnation, glutaraldehyde (GA) cross-linking, and thermal treatment. The concentrations of MWCNTs in the electrospinning solution and PEI in the impregnation solution were investigated. Interestingly, the mechanical strength and electrical conductivity of CFM showed a triangle trend with the MWCNTs or PEI concentration. The optimal sample (CNT1.5/PEI7/GA-CFM) demonstrated good flexibility, with an in-plane resistivity of 18.60 mΩ cm, a tensile strength of 7.94 MPa, and a bending strength of 20.65 MPa. The peak power density and maximum current density were respectively 1169 mW cm-2 and 2720 mA cm-2, exceeding those of commercial Toray and Cetech GDLs under identical testing conditions. These results illustrate the potential of high-performance electrospun CFMs for GDL applications.

Hot Injection Assisted Electronically Modulated Twin and Grain Boundary Rich Sub-2 nm Pt3Co Alloy Resistant to Phosphate Ion for PEMFCs

Modulation of the electronic d-band center, structural defects (line defects), and particle size of Pt3Co 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 (Pt3Co(1.3 t,g-b)/fVC-200) has delivered an electrochemical surface area of 84 m2g Pt - 1 $\;{\mathrm{g}}_{{\mathrm{Pt}}}^{ - 1}$ 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-2 with stability till 20k cycles. In the high-temperature proton exchange membrane fuel cell Pt3Co(1.3 t,g-b)/fVC-200-based cell has outperformed Pt/C rendering 600 mWcm-2 under H2-Air compared to 529 mWcm-2 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.

Breaking the Pt Electron Symmetry and OH Spillover towards PtIr Active Center for Performance Modulation in Direct Ammonia Fuel Cell

The growing interest in low-temperature direct ammonia fuel cells (DAFCs) arises from the utilization of a carbon-neutral ammonia source; however, DAFCs encounter significant electrode overpotentials due to the substantial energy barrier of the *NH2 to *NH dehydrogenation, compounded by the facile deactivation by *N on the Pt surface. In this work, a unique catalyst, Pt4Ir@AlOOH/NGr i.e., Pt4Ir/ANGr, is introduced composed of PtIr alloy nanoparticles controllably decorated on the pseudo-boehmite phase of AlOOH-supported nitrogen-doped reduced graphene (AlOOH/NGr) composite, synthesized via the polyol reduction method. The detailed studies on the structural and electronic properties of the catalyst by XAS and VB-XPS reveal the possible electronic modulations. The optimized Pt4Ir/ANGr composition exhibits a significantly improved onset potential and mass activity for AOR. The DFT study confirms the OHad species spillover by AlOOH and Pt4Ir (100) facilitates the conversion of the *NH2 to *NH with minimal energy barriers. Finally, testing of DAFC at the system level using a membrane electrode assembly (MEA) with Pt4Ir/ANGr as the anode catalyst, demonstrating the suitability of the catalyst for its practical applications. This study thus uncovers the potential of the Pt4Ir catalyst in synergy with ANGr, largely addressing the challenges in hydrogen transportation, storage, and safety within DAFCs.

Catalytic effects of graphene structures on Pt/graphene catalysts

Pt/C catalysts have been considered the ideal cathodic catalyst for proton exchange membrane fuel cells (PEMFCs) due to their superior oxygen reduction reaction (ORR) catalytic activity at low temperatures. However, oxidation and corrosion of the carbon black support at the cathode result in the agglomeration of Pt particles, which reduces the active sites in the Pt/C catalyst. Graphene supports have shown great promise to address this issue, and therefore, finding out the main structural features of the graphene support is of great significance for guiding the rational construction of graphene-based Pt (Pt/graphene) catalysts for optimized ORR catalysts. In order to systematically study the influence of the structural features of the graphene support on the electro-catalytic properties of Pt/graphene catalysts, we prepared porous nitrogen-doped reduced graphene oxide (P-NRGO), nitrogen-doped reduced graphene oxide (NRGO), treated P-NRGO (TP-NRGO) and reduced graphene oxide (RGO) with different nitrogen species contents (7.76, 7.54, 3.24, and 0.14 at%), oxygen species contents (18.68, 18.12, 6.34 and 21.12 at%), specific surface areas (370.4, 70.6, 347.7 and 276.2 m2 g-1) and pore volumes (1.366, 0.1424, 1.3299 and 1.0414 cm3 g-1). The ORR activity of the four Pt/graphene catalysts when listed in the order of their half-wave potentials (E 1/2) and peak power densities was found to be as Pt/P-NRGO > Pt/NRGO > Pt/TP-NRGO > Pt/RGO. The long-term durability of Pt/P-NRGO for the operation of H2-air PEMFCs is better than that of commercial Pt/C catalysts. The excellent ORR catalytic performance of Pt/P-NRGO compared to that of the other three Pt/graphene catalysts is ascribed to the high nitrogen species content of P-NRGO that can facilitate the uniform dispersion of Pt particles and provide accessible active sites for ORR. The results indicate that the specific surface area (SSA) and heteroatom dopants have strong influence on the Pt particle size, and that the nitrogen species of graphene supports play a more important role than the oxygen species, specific surface area and pore volume for the Pt/graphene catalysts in providing accessible active sites.

Defect-Engineered Charge Transfer in a PtCu/PrxCe1-xO2 Carbon-Free Catalyst for Promoting the Methanol Oxidation and Oxygen Reduction Reactions

Platinum (Pt) and Pt-based alloys have been extensively studied as efficient catalysts for both the anode and cathode of direct methanol fuel cells (DMFC). Defect engineering has been revealed to be practicable in tuning the charge transfer between Pt and transition metals/supports, which leads to the charge density rearrangement and facilitates the electrocatalytic performance. Herein, Pr-doped CeO2 nanocubes were used as the noncarbon support of a PtCu catalyst. The concentration and structure of oxygen vacancy (Vo) defects were engineered by Pr doping. Besides the Vo monomer, the oxygen vacancy with a linear structure is also observed, leading to the one-dimensional PtCu. The Vo concentration shows the volcanic scenario as Pr increased. Accordingly, the activities of PtCu/PrxCe1-xO2 toward methanol oxidation and oxygen reduction reactions exhibit the volcanic scenario. PtCu/Pr0.15Ce0.85O2 exhibits the optimal catalytic performance with the specific activity 3.57 times higher than that of Pt/C toward MOR and 1.34 times higher toward ORR. The MOR and ORR mass activities of PtCu/Pr0.15Ce0.85O2 reached 1.05 and 0.12 A·mg-1, which are 3.09 and 0.92 times the values of Pt/C, respectively. The abundant Vo afforded surplus electrons, which tailored the electron transfer between PtCu and PrxCe1-xO2, leading to enhanced catalytic performance of PtCu/PrxCe1-xO2. DFT calculations on PtCu/Pr0.15Ce0.85O2 revealed that Pr doping reduced the band gap of CeO2 and lowered the overpotential.

A facile mixed complex synthesis method for perovskite oxides toward electrocatalytic oxygen reduction

The perovskite-type La(0.5+x)Sr(0.5-x)FeO3-δ (x = 0.00, 0.10, 0.20) oxides for the electrocatalytic oxygen reduction reaction (ORR) were synthesized by a facile reaction-EDTA/citric acid mixed complex sol-gel method. The cubic single-phase perovskite structure of the as-prepared oxides is demonstrated using powder X-ray diffraction (XRD). Scanning electron microscopy/energy-dispersive X-ray spectroscopy (SEM-EDX), transmission electron microscopy/selected area electron diffraction (TEM-SAED), and X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) characterizations were also conducted for the perovskite-type La(0.5+x)Sr(0.5-x)FeO3-δ (x = 0.00, 0.10, 0.20) oxides. Furthermore, the electrochemical ORR properties of the as-prepared oxides in alkaline media were studied, with the oxides exhibiting good electrocatalytic ORR performance.