Lattice-strain control of the activity in dealloyed core-shell fuel cell catalysts.

Electrocatalysis will play a key role in future energy conversion and storage technologies, such as water electrolysers, fuel cells and metal-air batteries. Molecular interactions between chemical reactants and the catalytic surface control the activity and efficiency, and hence need to be optimized; however, generalized experimental strategies to do so are scarce. Here we show how lattice strain can be used experimentally to tune the catalytic activity of dealloyed bimetallic nanoparticles for the oxygen-reduction reaction, a key barrier to the application of fuel cells and metal-air batteries.

Complementarity between high-energy photoelectron and L-edge spectroscopy for probing the electronic structure of 5d transition metal catalysts.

We demonstrate the successful use of hard X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (HAXPES) for selectively probing the platinum partial d-density of states (DOS) in a Pt-Cu nanoparticle catalyst which shows activity superior to pure Pt towards the oxygen-reduction reaction (ORR). The information about occupied Pt d-band states was complemented by Pt L(2)-edge X-ray absorption near-edge spectroscopy (XANES), which probes unoccupied valence states. We found a significant electronic perturbation of the Pt projected d-DOS which was narrowed and shifted to higher binding energy compared to pure platinum.

Size and composition distribution dynamics of alloy nanoparticle electrocatalysts probed by anomalous small angle X-ray scattering (ASAXS).

Anomalous small angle X-ray scattering (ASAXS) is shown to be an ideal technique to investigate the particle size and particle composition dynamics of carbon-supported alloy nanoparticle electrocatalysts at the atomic scale. In this technique, SAXS data are obtained at different X-ray energies close to a metal absorption edge, where the metal scattering strength changes, providing element specificity. ASAXS is used to, first, establish relationships between annealing temperature and the resulting particle size distribution for Pt25Cu75 alloy nanoparticle electrocatalyst precursors.

Voltammetric surface dealloying of Pt bimetallic nanoparticles: an experimental and DFT computational analysis.

Voltammetric dealloying of bimetallic platinum-copper (Pt-Cu) alloys has been shown to be an effective strategy to modify the surface electrocatalytic reactivity of Pt bimetallic nanoparticles (S. Koh and P. Strasser, J.