Solving Nafion poisoning of ORR catalysts with an accessible layer: designing a nanostructured core-shell Pt/C catalyst via a one-step self-assembly for PEMFC
Fen Zhou
State Key Laboratory of Advanced Technology for Materials Synthesis and Processing, Wuhan University of Technology, Wuhan, China
Search for more papers by this authorYizhi Yan
State Key Laboratory of Advanced Technology for Materials Synthesis and Processing, Wuhan University of Technology, Wuhan, China
Search for more papers by this authorShumeng Guan
State Key Laboratory of Advanced Technology for Materials Synthesis and Processing, Wuhan University of Technology, Wuhan, China
Search for more papers by this authorCorresponding Author
Wei Guo
State Key Laboratory of Advanced Technology for Materials Synthesis and Processing, Wuhan University of Technology, Wuhan, China
Correspondence
Wei Guo and Mu Pan, State Key Laboratory of Advanced Technology for Materials Synthesis and Processing, Wuhan University of Technology, Wuhan 430070, China.
Email: [email protected] (W. G) and [email protected] (M. P)
Search for more papers by this authorMeiling Sun
Energy Storage & Distributed Resources Division, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, Berkeley, California, USA
Search for more papers by this authorCorresponding Author
Mu Pan
State Key Laboratory of Advanced Technology for Materials Synthesis and Processing, Wuhan University of Technology, Wuhan, China
Correspondence
Wei Guo and Mu Pan, State Key Laboratory of Advanced Technology for Materials Synthesis and Processing, Wuhan University of Technology, Wuhan 430070, China.
Email: [email protected] (W. G) and [email protected] (M. P)
Search for more papers by this authorFen Zhou
State Key Laboratory of Advanced Technology for Materials Synthesis and Processing, Wuhan University of Technology, Wuhan, China
Search for more papers by this authorYizhi Yan
State Key Laboratory of Advanced Technology for Materials Synthesis and Processing, Wuhan University of Technology, Wuhan, China
Search for more papers by this authorShumeng Guan
State Key Laboratory of Advanced Technology for Materials Synthesis and Processing, Wuhan University of Technology, Wuhan, China
Search for more papers by this authorCorresponding Author
Wei Guo
State Key Laboratory of Advanced Technology for Materials Synthesis and Processing, Wuhan University of Technology, Wuhan, China
Correspondence
Wei Guo and Mu Pan, State Key Laboratory of Advanced Technology for Materials Synthesis and Processing, Wuhan University of Technology, Wuhan 430070, China.
Email: [email protected] (W. G) and [email protected] (M. P)
Search for more papers by this authorMeiling Sun
Energy Storage & Distributed Resources Division, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, Berkeley, California, USA
Search for more papers by this authorCorresponding Author
Mu Pan
State Key Laboratory of Advanced Technology for Materials Synthesis and Processing, Wuhan University of Technology, Wuhan, China
Correspondence
Wei Guo and Mu Pan, State Key Laboratory of Advanced Technology for Materials Synthesis and Processing, Wuhan University of Technology, Wuhan 430070, China.
Email: [email protected] (W. G) and [email protected] (M. P)
Search for more papers by this authorFunding information: China Postdoctoral Science Foundation funded project, Grant/Award Number: No. 2018T110813; the Fundamental Research Funds for the Central Universities, Grant/Award Number: WUT: 193343001; The Key Technologies Research and Development Program, Grant/Award Number: 2017YFB0102801
Summary
A core-shell Pt/C@NCL300 catalyst with an accessible layer was designed to recover lost ORR activity and was constructed via a one-step self-assembly process in this paper. A thin porous layer derived from Nafion was first formed on the surface of Pt/C catalyst to create a shell. This first coating successfully separated the Nafion and Pt particles in the catalysts and reducing the negative impact of Nafion on ORR activity and enhancing the fuel cell performance. The newly fabricated Pt/C@NCL300 catalyst exhibited much higher specific activity than the original Pt/C catalyst in RDE tests under the same conditions and were comparable to the activity of Pt/C electrode without Nafion poisoning. Moreover, the fuel cell with Pt/C@NCL300 catalyst exhibited a higher power density without an obvious increase in proton transport and O2 transport resistance compared to that of a Pt/C fuel cell with a low Pt loading. This result indicates that coating the Pt/C catalyst with a layer accessible for oxygen and protons is a promising way to effectively promote Pt-based catalysts that work under normal operating conditions.
Supporting Information
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