Fiona Pescher, Julian Stiegeler, Philipp A. Heizmann, Carolin Klose, Severin Vierrath and Matthias Breitwieser
{"title":"Pt/C catalysts synthesized in a commercial particle atomic layer deposition system enabling improved durability in fuel cells","authors":"Fiona Pescher, Julian Stiegeler, Philipp A. Heizmann, Carolin Klose, Severin Vierrath and Matthias Breitwieser","doi":"10.1039/D4RA04708G","DOIUrl":null,"url":null,"abstract":"<p >Particle atomic layer deposition (ALD) is an emerging method for engineering 3D materials, such as powders, for energy applications. In our study, we employ a commercially available and scalable particle ALD system to synthesize Pt/C electrocatalysts for fuel cells. Our method yields Pt/C catalysts characterized by highly dispersed platinum nanoparticles with a narrow particle size distribution of 2.2 ± 0.5 nm for 30 wt% Pt and 2.6 ± 0.6 nm for 40 wt% Pt, as verified through transmission electron microscopy and X-ray diffraction analysis. The performance of the ALD-synthesized catalysts is benchmarked against a state-of-the-art catalyst (TEC10V50E), with both catalysts exhibiting similar beginning-of-test performance (1.6 A cm<small><sup>−2</sup></small> at 0.65 V) under application-relevant operation conditions (80 °C, 50% relative humidity). After 30 000 voltage cycles, conducted in accordance with the U.S. Department of Energy's accelerated catalyst degradation test, the ALD catalysts demonstrate up to 64% greater electrochemical active surface areas and superior retention of cell performance, with a 34% higher current density at 0.65 V, compared to the reference. Given the scalability of the commercial particle ALD system, these promising results encourage the use of particle ALD as a novel synthesis approach for fuel cell catalyst materials in the industry.</p>","PeriodicalId":102,"journal":{"name":"RSC Advances","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":3.9000,"publicationDate":"2024-10-14","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://pubs.rsc.org/en/content/articlepdf/2024/ra/d4ra04708g?page=search","citationCount":"0","resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":null,"PeriodicalName":"RSC Advances","FirstCategoryId":"92","ListUrlMain":"https://pubs.rsc.org/en/content/articlelanding/2024/ra/d4ra04708g","RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"化学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":null,"EPubDate":"","PubModel":"","JCR":"Q2","JCRName":"CHEMISTRY, MULTIDISCIPLINARY","Score":null,"Total":0}
引用次数: 0
Abstract
Particle atomic layer deposition (ALD) is an emerging method for engineering 3D materials, such as powders, for energy applications. In our study, we employ a commercially available and scalable particle ALD system to synthesize Pt/C electrocatalysts for fuel cells. Our method yields Pt/C catalysts characterized by highly dispersed platinum nanoparticles with a narrow particle size distribution of 2.2 ± 0.5 nm for 30 wt% Pt and 2.6 ± 0.6 nm for 40 wt% Pt, as verified through transmission electron microscopy and X-ray diffraction analysis. The performance of the ALD-synthesized catalysts is benchmarked against a state-of-the-art catalyst (TEC10V50E), with both catalysts exhibiting similar beginning-of-test performance (1.6 A cm−2 at 0.65 V) under application-relevant operation conditions (80 °C, 50% relative humidity). After 30 000 voltage cycles, conducted in accordance with the U.S. Department of Energy's accelerated catalyst degradation test, the ALD catalysts demonstrate up to 64% greater electrochemical active surface areas and superior retention of cell performance, with a 34% higher current density at 0.65 V, compared to the reference. Given the scalability of the commercial particle ALD system, these promising results encourage the use of particle ALD as a novel synthesis approach for fuel cell catalyst materials in the industry.
期刊介绍:
An international, peer-reviewed journal covering all of the chemical sciences, including multidisciplinary and emerging areas. RSC Advances is a gold open access journal allowing researchers free access to research articles, and offering an affordable open access publishing option for authors around the world.