Carbon Supported Octahedral PtNi Nanoparticles (oct-PtNi/C) as Cathode Catalyst for Proton Exchange Membrane Fuel Cells (PEMFCs) with Improved Activity and Durability

Authors

Ziwei Feng, Yunnan Key Laboratory of Modern Separation Analysis and Substance Transformation, College of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering, Yunnan Normal University, Kunming, Yunnan, 650500, P.R. China.
Haizhong Chen, Yunnan Key Laboratory of Modern Separation Analysis and Substance Transformation, College of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering, Yunnan Normal University, Kunming, Yunnan, 650500, P.R. China.
Xiao Duan, Yunnan Key Laboratory of Modern Separation Analysis and Substance Transformation, College of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering, Yunnan Normal University, Kunming, Yunnan, 650500, P.R. China.
Ling Tang, State Key Laboratory of Precious Metal Functional Materials, Yunnan Precious Metals Laboratory Co., Ltd., Kunming, Yunnan, 650106, P.R. China.
Yunkun Zhao, State Key Laboratory of Precious Metal Functional Materials, Yunnan Precious Metals Laboratory Co., Ltd., Kunming, Yunnan, 650106, P.R. China.
Long Huang, Yunnan Key Laboratory of Modern Separation Analysis and Substance Transformation, College of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering, Yunnan Normal University, Kunming, Yunnan, 650500, P.R. China; State Key Laboratory of Precious Metal Functional Materials, Yunnan Precious Metals Laboratory Co., Ltd., Kunming, Yunnan, 650106, P.R. China.Follow

Document Type

Article

Corresponding Author(s)

Long Huang(longhuang@ynnu.edu.cn)

Abstract

Proton exchange membrane fuel cells (PEMFCs) is considered as a promising renewable power source. However, the massive commercial application of PEMFCs was greatly hindered by their high expense and less-satisfied performance mainly due to the sluggish oxygen reduction reaction (ORR) kinetics even on state-of-the-art Pt catalyst. Octahedral PtNi nanoparticles (oct-PtNi NPs) with excellent ORR activity in half-cell have been widely studied, while their performance in membrane electrode assembly (MEA) was much less reported. Herein, we investigated the MEA performance using carbon supported oct-PtNi NPs (oct-PtNi/C) as cathode catalyst. Under mild acid washing condition, the surface Ni atoms of oct-PtNi/C were largely removed, and the performance of the MEA using the acid-leaching oct-PtNi/C (PNC-A) as the cathode catalyst was greatly improved. The maximum power density of the MEA reaches 1.0 W·cm^-2 with cathode Pt loading of 0.2 mg·cm^-2, which is 15% higher than that using Pt/C as the catalyst. After 30k accelerated degradation test (ADT), the MEA using PNC-A as catalysts shows a performance retention of 82%, higher than that of Pt/C (74%). The results reported here verify the possibility of using PNC-A as an advanced cathode catalyst in PEMFCs, thus can enhancing the performance of PEMFCs while lowering the amount of expensive Pt.

Graphical Abstract

Keywords

PEMFC, oct-PtNi-NPs, oxygen reduction reaction (ORR), membrane electrode assembly (MEA)

DOI

10.61558/2993-074X.3588

Online Date

10-13-2025

Recommended Citation

Ziwei Feng, Haizhong Chen, Xiao Duan, Ling Tang, Yunkun Zhao, Long Huang. Carbon Supported Octahedral PtNi Nanoparticles (oct-PtNi/C) as Cathode Catalyst for Proton Exchange Membrane Fuel Cells (PEMFCs) with Improved Activity and Durability[J]. Journal of Electrochemistry, doi: 10.61558/2993-074X.3588.