Cascade Synthesis of Intermetallic PtZn Electrocatalysts for Practical Fuel Cells
Abstract The performance of Pt‐based intermetallic electrocatalysts for the oxygen reduction reaction in practical fuel cells can be substantially enhanced via the phase engineering‐based regulation of strain effects. Herein, cascade synthesis exploiting a temperature‐dependent phase evolution process is used to prepare L1 0 ‐PtZn intermetallic compounds. ZnS produced in situ as an intermediate is shown to induce a sequential transformation of Pt to L1 2 ‐Pt 3 Zn and L1 0 ‐PtZn upon annealing. The resulting core/shell PtZn/Pt catalysts demonstrate a high mass activity of 1.18 A mg Pt −1 at 0.9 V in a half‐cell test and a high current density of 0.98 A cm −2 at 0.7 V in a fuel‐cell test, experiencing a voltage drop of only 23 mV after 30 000 voltage cycles at 0.8 A cm −2 . Density functional theory calculations and experiments indicate that the high activity of these catalysts is due to the strain effect caused by the lattice mismatch between the PtZn core and Pt (110) skin (and not Pt (111)). This study underscores the strategic use of phase‐engineering‐driven strain regulation in the design of high‐performance Pt‐based electrocatalysts for energy conversion applications.
Authors
- Shi‐Long Xu
- Ting Lei (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-4809-9770)
- Umedjon Khalilov (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-3841-1895)
- Xinlong Tian (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-8388-5198)
- Hai‐Wei Liang (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-0128-0222)
- Yuan Kong (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-5637-2511)
- M. S. Payzullakhanov
- Peng Rao (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-6146-5600)
- Di Wang (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-0412-7813)
- Mingkai Liu (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-9060-848X)
- N.N. Cherenda (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-2394-5117)
- Zihao Zhai (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-7280-4601)
- Yan Yan (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-8786-903X)
- Zhongyuan Li (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-0251-7073)
- Xiaoyan Tian
- Yi Ding (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-3933-664X)
- Siyuan Zheng (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0009-0008-1253-4495)
- Wenan Tie
Institutions
- University of Central Asia (KG)
- Anhui Jianzhu University (CN)
- University of Science and Technology of China (CN)
- Academy of Sciences Republic of Uzbekistan (UZ)
- Hainan University (CN)
- Belarusian State University (BY)
- Interstate Commission for Water Coordination of Central Asia (UZ)
- Institute of Ion Plasma Laser Technologies (UZ)
- Shaanxi Research Design Institute of Petroleum and Chemical Industry (CN)
- Hainan Agricultural School (CN)
- First Affiliated Hospital of Henan University (CN)
- Shaanxi Yanchang Petroleum (China) (CN)
- Anhui University of Technology (CN)
Publication Details
- Journal
- Advanced Functional Materials
- Published
- 2025-09-01
- DOI
- https://doi.org/10.1002/adfm.202513851
- Primary Topic
- Electrocatalysts for Energy Conversion
- Type
- article
- Field-Weighted Citation Impact
- 0.00
Funders
- Natural Science Foundation for Distinguished Young Scholars of Anhui Province
- National Natural Science Foundation of China
- China Postdoctoral Science Foundation
- University of Science and Technology of China
- Anhui Provincial Department of Education
- University Natural Science Research Project of Anhui Province
- Postdoctoral Research Foundation of China
- National Key Research and Development Program of China
- Fundamental Research Funds for the Central Universities