Structure-engineered PtPd nanoassemblies for high-performance oxygen reduction electrocatalysis in PEM fuel cells
A nano assembly (NA) of PtPd/C binary alloy electrocatalyst was successfully synthesized via a modified molten-salt-assisted approach for enhanced oxygen reduction reaction (ORR) performance in proton exchange membrane fuel cells (PEMFCs). XRD and TEM analysis reveal the formation of a PtPd alloy with closely associated nanoparticles of average size of about 8 nm. Electrochemical measurements revealed that the NA PtPd/C showed ∼6.5 and ∼8.4-fold higher mass and specific activities, respectively, than commercial Pt/C. The NA PtPd/C showed excellent electrochemical performance up to 50,000 potential cycles, and retained about 57% of its initial mass activity during a long-term durability evaluation up to 100,000 cycles. CO-stripping measurements indicated a lower CO-oxidation onset potential than for commercial Pt/C suggesting that adsorbed CO oxidation was initiated at lower potential. In single-cell PEMFC testing under H 2 /O 2 conditions, the catalyst achieved a peak power density of 1.70 W cm −2 at 3.97 A cm −2 . The DFT calculations were restricted to structural relaxation of a simplified PtPd model.
Authors
- Yogapriya Selvaraj (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0009-0007-0307-3212)
- Christopher Salvo (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-3404-0110)
- V. Charles Vincent (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-1981-4525)
- Sapana Jadoun (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-3572-7934)
- Prasanna Venkata Ramanan
- Arun Thirumurugan (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-7261-988X)
- Francisco Vicente Herrera (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-7783-2970)
- S. Devakirubakaran (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-7622-5490)
- Nandhakumar Eswaramoorthy (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-9792-1647)
- Arunachalam Arulraj (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-6234-8147)
- Sekar Karthikeyan (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-8631-9113)
- Sampath Senthil (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-8504-6790)
- Moorthi Lokanathan (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-2930-1504)
- Prem Kumar Muthusamy
Institutions
- Universidad de Santiago de Chile (CL)
- SRM Institute of Science and Technology (IN)
- University of Tarapacá (CL)
- University of Atacama (CL)
- University of Bío-Bío (CL)
- Indian Institute of Technology Madras (IN)
- Universidad Bernardo O'Higgins (CL)
- Metropolitan University of Technology (CL)
Publication Details
- Journal
- Journal of Power Sources
- Published
- 2026-10-15
- DOI
- https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jpowsour.2026.241748
- Primary Topic
- Electrocatalysts for Energy Conversion
- Type
- article
- Field-Weighted Citation Impact
- 0.00