Atomic-Level Construction of Tensile-Strained PdFe Alloy Surface toward Highly Efficient Oxygen Reduction Electrocatalysis.

Impact Factor:

11.189

DOI number:

10.1021/acs.nanolett.9b05024

Journal:

Nano Lett

Key Words:

oxygen reduction reaction, ligand effects, geometrical effects, flexible strategies

Abstract:

Exploring the high-performance non-Pt electrocatalysts for oxygen reduction reaction (ORR), the bottleneck process in fuel cells, is desirable but challenging. Here, we report the Pd@PdFe core–shell icosahedra as an active and durable electrocatalyst toward ORR in alkaline conditions, which feature a three-atomic-layer tensile-strained PdFe overlayer on Pd icosahedra. Our optimized catalyst shows 2.8-fold enhancement in mass activity and 6.9-fold enhancement in specific activity than commercial Pt/C catalyst toward ORR, representing one of the best non-Pt electrocatalysts. Moreover, the boosted ORR catalysis is strongly supported by the assembled fuel cell performance using Pd@PdFe core–shell icosahedra as the cathode electrocatalyst. The density functional theory calculations reveal that the synergistic coupling of tensile strain and alloy effects enables the optimum binding strength for intermediates, thus causing the maximum activity. The present work suggests the coupling between multiple surface modulations endows larger room for the rational design of remarkable catalysts.

Co-author:

Xingxing Li, Chunxiao Liu, Pengfei Gao, Fawad Ahmad, Laihao Luo, Yifan Ye, Zhigang Geng, Guoxiong Wang, Rui Si, Jinlong Yang

First Author:

Xu Li

Correspondence Author:

Hongwen Huang, Chao Ma, Jie Zeng

Volume:

2020

Issue:

20

Page Number:

1403-1409

Translation or Not:

no

Date of Publication:

2020-01-22

Links to published journals:

https://pubs.acs.org/doi/abs/10.1021/acs.nanolett.9b05024