New nanowire catalysts are expected to significantly reduce fuel cells

Recently, I learned from the University of Science and Technology of China that the research group of the National Research Center of Hefei Microscale Material Science, Professor Zeng Jie, and Professor Huang Hongwen of Hunan University have developed a proton exchange membrane fuel with excellent catalytic activity and stability. Battery cathode catalyst. The results were published in the Journal of the American Chemical Society.

The proton exchange membrane fuel cell has the advantages of zero emission, high energy efficiency and adjustable power, and is the most ideal driving power source for electric vehicles in the future. However, the kinetics of the oxygen reduction reaction at the cathode end of a proton exchange membrane fuel cell is very slow, and a large amount of noble metal platinum nanocatalyst is required as an electrode catalyst to maintain efficient operation of the battery, which makes the cost of the proton exchange membrane fuel cell very high, which limits its Large-scale commercial application.

In the platinum-based catalyst, increasing the mass activity and catalytic stability of the platinum-based catalyst in the oxygen reduction reaction is a way to reduce the amount of precious metal platinum. However, most of the catalysts are not stable enough.

Faced with this problem, the researchers developed ultra-fine platinum-nickel-lanthanum ternary metal nanowire catalysts by fine-tuning the dimensions, size and composition of platinum-based catalysts. Since the nanowire has a diameter of only one nanometer, the surface platinum atom accounts for more than 50% of the total platinum atomic ratio, exhibiting an ultrahigh atomic utilization rate and providing a structural basis for high catalytic mass activity.

The oxygen reduction catalysis test showed that the mass activity of the carbon-supported ultrafine platinum nickel ruthenium ternary metal nanowire catalyst was 15.2 times that of the current commercial platinum carbon nanocatalyst. At the same time, after the catalyst was recycled for 10,000 times in an oxygen atmosphere, only 12.8% of the mass activity was lost. However, the commercial carbon-supported platinum nanocatalyst was recycled 10,000 times in an oxygen atmosphere, and the mass activity loss was reached. 73.7%. The new catalysts have significantly improved both mass activity and catalytic stability, demonstrating good application potential.