Study of Ruthenium-Contamination Effect on Oxygen Reduction Activity of Platinum-Based PEMFC and DMFC Cathode Catalyst

We outline a systematic experimental and theoretical study on the influence of ruthenium contamination oxygen reduction activity (ORR) Pt/C catalyst at potentials relevant to polymer electrolyte fuel cell cathode. A commercial was contaminated by different amounts ruthenium, equivalent 0.15–4 monolayers. The resulting ruthenium-contaminated powders were characterized energy–dispersive x–ray spectroscopy (EDS), photoelectron (XPS) scanning transmission electron microscopy (STEM) verify contamination. rotating disk electrode (RDE) technique used kinetics. Density functional theory (DFT) calculations performed estimate platinum surface with increasing coverage, simulating Pt/C. binding energies O OH surfaces for estimations. It found that specific ORR 0.85 V vs RHE exhibited an exponential-like decay increased contamination, decreasing ?45% already 0.15 monolayer-equivalent results DFT qualitatively in line findings, verifying ability chosen approach predict effect platinum.