Epitaxial growth of highly atomically ordered Pt-Fe nanoparticles from carbon nanotube bundles as durable oxygen reduction electrocatalysts

doi:10.1016/j.jmst.2024.06.009

Abstract

Abstract: Intermetallic Pt-based nanoparticles have displayed excellent activity for the oxygen reduction reaction (ORR) in fuel cells. However, it remains a great challenge to synthesize highly atomically ordered Pt-based nanoparticle catalysts because the formation of an atomically ordered structure usually requires high-temperature annealing accompanied by grain sintering. Here we report the direct epitaxial growth of well-aligned, highly atomically ordered Pt3 Fe and PtFe nanoparticles (<5 nm) on single-walled carbon nanotube (SWCNT) bundles films. The long-range periodically symmetric van der Waals (vdW) interac-tions between SWCNT bundles and Pt-Fe nanoparticles play an important role in promoting not only the alignment ordering of inter-nanoparticles but also the atomic ordering of intra-nanoparticles. The ordered Pt3 Fe/SWCNT catalyst showed enhanced ORR catalytic performance of 2.3-fold higher mass activity and 3.1-fold higher specific activity than commercial Pt/C. Moreover, the formation of an interlocked inter-face and strong vdW interaction endow the Pt-Fe/SWCNT catalysts with extreme long-term stability in potential cycling and excellent anti-thermal sintering ability.

Key words: Epitaxial growth, Carbon nanotube, PtFe nanoparticles, Oxygen reduction reaction, Catalytic stability, Periodically symmetric van der Waals, (vdW) interactions

Juan He, Chao Chen, Hailong Yu, Yang Zhao, Ming Xu, Ting Xiong, Qiuhong Lu, Zhi Yu, Kaiping Tai, Jun Tan, Chang Liu. Epitaxial growth of highly atomically ordered Pt-Fe nanoparticles from carbon nanotube bundles as durable oxygen reduction electrocatalysts[J]. J. Mater. Sci. Technol., 2025, 212: 139-147.

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