Issue 5, 2016

Atomistic understanding of the origin of high oxygen reduction electrocatalytic activity of cuboctahedral Pt3Co–Pt core–shell nanoparticles

Abstract

PtM-based core–shell nanoparticles are a new class of active and stable nanocatalysts for promoting oxygen reduction reaction (ORR); however, the understanding of their high electrocatalytic performance for ORR at the atomistic level is still a great challenge. Herein, we report the synthesis of highly ordered and homogeneous truncated cuboctahedral Pt3Co–Pt core–shell nanoparticles (cs-Pt3Co). By combining atomic resolution electron microscopy, X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy, extensive first-principles calculations, and many other characterization techniques, we conclude that the cs-Pt3Co nanoparticles are composed of a complete or nearly complete Pt monolayer skin, followed by a secondary shell containing 5–6 layers with ~78 at% of Pt, in a Pt3Co configuration, and finally a Co-rich core with 64 at% of Pt. Only this particular structure is consistent with the very high electrocatalytic activity of cs-Pt3Co nanoparticles for ORR, which is about 6 times higher than commercial 30%-Pt/Vulcan and 5 times more active than non-faceted (spherical) alloy Pt3Co nanoparticles. Our study gives an important insight into the atomistic design and understanding of advanced bimetallic nanoparticles for ORR catalysis and other important industrial catalytic applications.

Graphical abstract: Atomistic understanding of the origin of high oxygen reduction electrocatalytic activity of cuboctahedral Pt3Co–Pt core–shell nanoparticles

Supplementary files

Article information

Article type
Paper
Submitted
20 Jul 2015
Accepted
14 Sep 2015
First published
16 Sep 2015

Catal. Sci. Technol., 2016,6, 1393-1401

Author version available

Atomistic understanding of the origin of high oxygen reduction electrocatalytic activity of cuboctahedral Pt3Co–Pt core–shell nanoparticles

G. Hu, E. Gracia-Espino, R. Sandström, Tiva. Sharifi, S. Cheng, H. Shen, C. Wang, S. Guo, G. Yang and T. Wågberg, Catal. Sci. Technol., 2016, 6, 1393 DOI: 10.1039/C5CY01128K

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