Release Time:2019-03-12  Hits:

Indexed by: Journal Article

Date of Publication: 2018-08-30

Journal: APPLIED SURFACE SCIENCE

Included Journals: SCIE

Volume: 450

Page Number: 244-250

ISSN: 0169-4332

Key Words: Core-shell; PtRu/C; h-BN; CO-tolerance; Proton exchange membrane fuel cell; Confinement effect

Abstract: PtRu alloy nanoparticles (NPs) in a commercial PtRu/C catalyst were encapsulated within few-layer graphitic boron nitride (h-BN) shells to form PtRu@h-BN/C core-shell catalysts, which were used as CO-tolerant anode catalyst in proton exchange membrane fuel cells (PEMFCs). Electrochemical results reveal that the PtRu@h-BN/C catalysts show similar activity in hydrogen oxidation reaction (HOR) as the PtRu/C catalysts but present enhanced CO-tolerance in fuel cell tests. Single cell performance with the PtRu@h-BN/C catalyst has been lowered by less than 20% with 30 ppm CO/25% CO2 introduced into H-2 feed gas, while the PtRu/C catalyst suffers from a decrease of 60% under the same conditions. The reaction data and characterization results suggest that h-BN ultrathin shells can achieve a good balance between durability and activity, enabling the PtRu@h-BN/C material to act as a potential anode catalyst for PEMFCs. (C) 2018 Elsevier B. V. All rights reserved.