Large faceted Pd nanocrystals supported small Pt nanoparticles as highly durable electrocatalysts for oxygen reduction

The reduction of Pt content together with the improvement of the durability of the catalyst for oxygen reduction reaction (ORR) is required to the large-scale commercialization of proton exchange membrane fuel cells. In this work, a novel ORR catalyst consisting of large Pd nanocrystal as the core with small Pt nanoparticles supported on the Pd core is prepared by a facile one-step synthesis method. The Pd substrate is presented in the form of well-defined cuboctahedrons and icosahedrons. The type of metal precursors and Pt/Pd molar ratio are important factors to obtain this Pd-supporting-Pt structure. The Pd-2-s-Pt-1 catalyst with a nominal Pt/Pd atomic ratio at 1/2 shows improved ORR activity: its mass specific activity and area specific activity is 2.5 and 3.5 times that of commercial Pt/C, respectively. More importantly, the Pd-2-s-Pt-1 catalyst demonstrates outstanding durability against potential cycling which can be ascribed to the slow dissolution of Pd core and the structure transformation from Pd@Pt to hollow PdPt alloyed nanocages. This exciting result provides a new pathway to the design of ORR catalyst with excellent durability. (C) 2016 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.