#The authors contributed equally.
*Correspondence Address: Prof. Yongming Hu, Hubei Key Laboratory of Micro-Nanoelectronic Materials and Devices, School of Microelectronics, Hubei University, No. 368 Youyi Avenue, Wuchang District, Wuhan 430062, Hubei, China. E-mail: Huym@hubu.edu.cn; Prof. Sanping Jiang, National energy key laboratory for new hydrogen-ammonia energy technologies, Foshan Xianhu Laboratory, No.1 Yangming Road, Nanhai District, Foshan 528200, Guangdong, China. E-mail: s.jiang@curtin.edu.au; Prof. Xinyi Zhang, Hubei Key Laboratory of Micro-Nanoelectronic Materials and Devices, School of Microelectronics, Hubei University, No. 368 Youyi Avenue, Wuchang District, Wuhan 430062, Hubei, China. E-mail: xinyizhang@hubu.edu.cn
Received: 25 Aug 2024 | Revised: 21 Nov 2024 | Accepted: 9 Dec 2024
Abstract
Direct ethanol fuel cells (DEFC) are regarded as indispensable and prospective energy storage devices due to their high volumetric energy density. Platinum (Pt) and Pt-based alloys are regarded as the most effective catalysts for both oxygen reduction reaction (ORR) and ethanol oxidation reaction (EOR). To further enhanced the catalytic performance of the catalyst, it's necessary to improve the mass activity and utilization efficiency of Pt. In this work, we report a strategy for fabricating ordered mesostructured platinum-palladium (PtPd) alloy nanotubes (MPPNs) with high hierarchical porosity (68%) and abundant exposed active edge sites. MPPNs exhibit excellent catalytic activity and stability for ORR, with a mass activity approximately 7.4 times higher than that of the commercial Pt/C catalyst. After 20k cycles of accelerated durability test for ORR, MPPNs exhibit an impressive retention of their original mass activity, maintaining a value of 93.9%. Furthermore, MPPNs display superior catalytic activity and stability for ethanol oxidation reaction, with a mass activity about 2.4 times higher than that of commercial Pt/C. After the 2000 scan cycles, the mass activity still remains 84.5% of initial performance. Both experimental and theoretical studies reveal that the synergistic effect of neighboring (111) and (100) facets on the edge sites plays a critical role in enhancing the electrocatalytic selectivity, activity and stability.
Wang S, Zhao Z, Hu Y, Jiang S, Zhang X. Mesostructured Pt alloy nanotubes with synergistic edge sites as bifunctional electrocatalysts for direct ethanol fuel cells. Energy Mater 2024;4:[Accept]. http://dx.doi.org/10.20517/energymater.2024.136