Spontaneous incorporation of gold in palladium-based ternary nanoparticles makes durable electrocatalysts for oxygen reduction reaction

Deli Wang (), Sufen Liu, Jie Wang, Ruoqian Lin, Masahiro Kawasaki, Eric Rus, Katharine E. Silberstein, Michael A. Lowe, Feng Lin, Dennis Nordlund, Hongfang Liu, David A. Muller, Huolin L. Xin () and Héctor D. Abruña ()
Additional contact information
Deli Wang: Key laboratory of Material Chemistry for Energy Conversion and Storage (Huazhong University of Science and Technology), Ministry of Education, Hubei Key Laboratory of Material Chemistry and Service Failure, School of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering, Huazhong University of Science and Technology
Sufen Liu: Key laboratory of Material Chemistry for Energy Conversion and Storage (Huazhong University of Science and Technology), Ministry of Education, Hubei Key Laboratory of Material Chemistry and Service Failure, School of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering, Huazhong University of Science and Technology
Jie Wang: Key laboratory of Material Chemistry for Energy Conversion and Storage (Huazhong University of Science and Technology), Ministry of Education, Hubei Key Laboratory of Material Chemistry and Service Failure, School of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering, Huazhong University of Science and Technology
Ruoqian Lin: Center for Functional Nanomaterials, Brookhaven National Laboratory
Masahiro Kawasaki: JEOL USA, Inc.
Eric Rus: Cornell University
Katharine E. Silberstein: Cornell University
Michael A. Lowe: Cornell University
Feng Lin: Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory
Dennis Nordlund: Stanford Synchrotron Radiation Lightsource, SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory
Hongfang Liu: Key laboratory of Material Chemistry for Energy Conversion and Storage (Huazhong University of Science and Technology), Ministry of Education, Hubei Key Laboratory of Material Chemistry and Service Failure, School of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering, Huazhong University of Science and Technology
David A. Muller: School of Applied and Engineering Physics, Cornell University
Huolin L. Xin: Center for Functional Nanomaterials, Brookhaven National Laboratory
Héctor D. Abruña: Cornell University

Nature Communications, 2016, vol. 7, issue 1, 1-9

Abstract: Abstract Replacing platinum by a less precious metal such as palladium, is highly desirable for lowering the cost of fuel-cell electrocatalysts. However, the instability of palladium in the harsh environment of fuel-cell cathodes renders its commercial future bleak. Here we show that by incorporating trace amounts of gold in palladium-based ternary (Pd6CoCu) nanocatalysts, the durability of the catalysts improves markedly. Using aberration-corrected analytical transmission electron microscopy in conjunction with synchrotron X-ray absorption spectroscopy, we show that gold not only galvanically replaces cobalt and copper on the surface, but also penetrates through the Pd–Co–Cu lattice and distributes uniformly within the particles. The uniform incorporation of Au provides a stability boost to the entire host particle, from the surface to the interior. The spontaneous replacement method we have developed is scalable and commercially viable. This work may provide new insight for the large-scale production of non-platinum electrocatalysts for fuel-cell applications.

Date: 2016
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.nature.com/articles/ncomms11941 Abstract (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:nat:natcom:v:7:y:2016:i:1:d:10.1038_ncomms11941

Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from
https://www.nature.com/ncomms/

DOI: 10.1038/ncomms11941

Access Statistics for this article

Nature Communications is currently edited by Nathalie Le Bot, Enda Bergin and Fiona Gillespie

More articles in Nature Communications from Nature
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Sonal Shukla () and Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing ().