A highly promising low-Pt nanocrystal catalyst demonstrated
Chinese and European research teams have developed a low-platinum catalyst with high activity and good stability. The new catalyst is based on core-shell structure using Cu/FePtCu nanoparticles. The catalyst is 4-times better than a commercial Pt/C-catalyst. The catalyst can be used in fuel cells, among others.
Researchers from Hubei University (Wuhan), Max Planck Institute, CIMAP, and Aalto University have developed a novel catalyst, which is 4-times better than commercial Pt/C-catalysts. The catalyst is based on core/shell Cu/FePtCu nanoparticles (NPs are 18-38 nm in size). The Fe and Cu content is critical to form a Cu/FePtCu core/shell structure, for Cu content with 20% ratio and Fe >40%. Optimized Fe45Pt35Cu20 NPs with core–shell and a 4–5 atomic layer Pt-rich surface structure show better ORR catalysis performance than commercial Pt/C, or 4 times better mass activity and also good stability. The current density of the catalyst drops only 3% after 1000 cycles which is much better than with traditional Pt/C catalyst (34% decay). The new catalyst could be used e.g. in fuel cells.
The results were recently published in Nano Energy 54 (2018) 280-287.