Platinum–Nickel Electrocatalysts for a Proton-Exchange Membrane Fuel Cell Cathode: Their Synthesis, Acid Treatment, Microstructure and Electrochemical Behavior

Abstract

Within this research, we studied the structural–morphological and electrochemical characteristics of the PtNi/C catalysts synthesized via the two-stage sequential reduction of precursors. We also carried out a comparative study of the obtained bimetallic catalysts and their commercial Pt/C analog. The use of triethylamine as a surfactant as well as the acid treatment as an additional synthesis stage, were shown to have a positive effect on the functional parameters of the bimetallic electrocatalysts. The resulting PtNi/C electrocatalyst demonstrates a mass activity value of 389 A gPt−1, which is 1.6 times higher than this parameter for a commercial analog.

Keywords

• platinum-nickel electrocatalyst
• bimetallic electrocatalyst
• ORR activity
• de-alloyed catalyst
• nanoparticle structure