Aqueous Phase Approach to Au-Modified Pt–Co/C toward Efficient and Durable Cathode Catalyst of PEMFCs
Chen Ding, Zijie Mao, Jiashun Liang, Xianxian Qin, Qing Zhang, Fan Yang, Qing Li, Wen–Bin Cai
Abstract
The commercialization of proton exchange membrane fuel cells (PEMFCs) calls for the development of active and durable Pt-based catalysts for oxygen reduction reaction (ORR) by means of a cost-effective and environmentally benign protocol. We report herein an all aqueous phase preparation of carbon supported Au-modified Pt–Co alloy catalyst (Au/Pt–Co/C), which involves the dimethylamine borane co-reduction of aqueous Pt(II) and Co(II) precursors to form a Pt–Co/C catalyst and the ethanol reduction of an aqueous Au(III) precursor to form Au/Pt–Co/C. This Au/Pt–Co/C catalyst not only shows a greatly enhanced ORR activity like the homemade Pt–Co/C and state-of-art Pt–Co/C(com) catalysts as compared to the Pt/C catalyst but also exhibits a much higher durability over the Pt/C(com), homemade Pt–Co/C, and state-of-art Pt–Co/C(com) catalysts in accelerated degradation tests (ADTs) with both half-cell and single-cell configurations. Specifically, the maximum power density of a PEMFC involving the Au/Pt–Co/C cathode suffers only a 6% loss after 30 000 cycles of a standard ADT while that involving the state-of-art Pt–Co/C(com) suffers a 37% loss. This research provides an alternative route to prepare efficient and durable Pt-based ORR catalysts toward a widespread application of PEMFCs.