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Fabricating Pt/CeO2/N–C ternary ORR electrocatalysts with extremely low platinum content and excellent performance

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Abstract

The research of high efficiency low platinum materials for oxygen reduction reaction (ORR) attracts attention in the field of energy conversion and storage. This study reports a high-efficient ternary ORR electrocatalyst containing N-doped carbon/CeO2-supported platinum catalyst (Pt/CeO2/N–C) with extremely low Pt content, which is fabricated by a facile two-step procedure using polyaniline (PANI) as an N source. The doped chloroplatinic anions are reduced to form evenly dispersed Pt nanoparticles (NPs) incorporated with the N-doped carbon matrix. A combination of Pt NPs with exposed highly active (111) facets, CeO2, and active pyridinic N contributed to enhanced ORR performance and stability. The activity of our Pt0.1/CeO2/N–C catalyst containing only 5.6 wt% of Pt reaches 238.46 mA mg Pt−1, four times advanced than commercial 20%Pt/C catalyst (58.8 mA mg Pt−1). These findings reveal an important new strategy for designing high-yield and cost-effective Pt-based ORR catalysts in simple and easy way.

Graphical abstract

  • An important new strategy for creating low-cost and high-efficient Pt-based ternary electrocatalyst was proposed.

  • Content of platinum in the resulted Pt/CeO2/N–C catalysts is only 5 wt%, however the mass activity of the Pt0.1/CeO2/N–C material is 4.1 times higher than that of 20%Pt/C catalyst.

  • The catalysts have great potential for applications as commercial catalytic materials in fuel cell.

  • PtCl62− incorporated into PANI were thermally decomposed to Pt NPs.

  • Pt/N-doped C/CeO2 exhibited an outstanding ternary synergistic ORR performance.

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Acknowledgements

This work was supported by National Natural Science Foundation of China (NSFC Grant No. 51602195, 11804152), the Natural Science Foundation of Shanghai (Grant No. 19ZR1422200), the Shandong Provincial Natural Science Foundation (No. ZR2019QEM004), and Foundation of Shanghai Engineering Technology Research Centre of Deep Offshore Material (19DZ2253100).

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Author notes

  1. Ning Tan and Yanhua Lei contributed equally to the work.

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Institute of Marine Materials Science and Engineering, Shanghai Maritime University, Shanghai, 201306, China

    Ning Tan, Yanhua Lei, Da Huo, Mengchao Ding, Yuliang Zhang & Shuaiqin Yu

  2. Material Science and Nano Engineering Department, Rice University, Houston, TX, 77005, USA

    Guanhui Gao

  3. College of Engineering and Applied Sciences, National Laboratory of Solid State Microstructures, Nan**g University, Nan**g, 210023, China

    Ruixuan Yu

  4. College of Mechanical and Electronic Engineering, Shanghai Jian Qiao University, Shanghai, 201306, China

    Hailiang Du

  5. College of Materials Science and Engineering, Qingdao University of Science and Technology, Zhengzhou Road 53, Qingdao, 266000, China

    Liutong

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  1. Ning Tan
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Correspondence to Yanhua Lei or Hailiang Du.

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Tan, N., Lei, Y., Huo, D. et al. Fabricating Pt/CeO2/N–C ternary ORR electrocatalysts with extremely low platinum content and excellent performance. J Mater Sci 57, 538–552 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10853-021-06610-w

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