Heterostructured Pt-PbS Nanobelt Achieves Remarkable Direct Formic Acid Oxidation Catalysis
Liangbin Liu, Lujie Jin, Zhengyi Xiao, Nan Fang, Xin Lin, Yujin Ji, Yucheng Wang, Youyong Li, Xiaoqing Huang, Lingzheng Bu
Abstract
Developing efficient and CO-tolerant platinum (Pt)-based anodic catalysts is challenging for a direct formic acid fuel cell (DFAFC). Herein, we report heterostructured Pt–lead–sulfur (PtPbS)-based nanomaterials with gradual phase regulation as efficient formic acid oxidation reaction (FAOR) catalysts. The optimized Pt-PbS nanobelts (Pt-PbS NBs/C) display the mass and specific activities of 5.90 A mg Pt –1 and 21.4 mA cm –2, 2.2/1.2, 1.5/1.1, and 36.9/79.3 times greater than those of PtPb-PbS NBs/C, Pt-PbSO 4 NBs/C, and commercial Pt/C, respectively. Simultaneously, it exhibits a higher membrane electrode assembly (MEA) power density (183.5 mW cm –2 ) than commercial Pt/C (40.3 mW cm –2 ). This MEA stably operates at 0.4 V for 25 h, demonstrating a competitive potential of device application. The distinctive heterostructure endows the Pt-PbS NBs/C with optimized dehydrogenation steps and resisting the CO poisoning, thus presenting the remarkable FAOR performance. This work paves an effective avenue for creating high-performance anodic catalysts for fuel cells and beyond.