Atomic Resolution Characterization of Pt Based Bi-Metallic Nano-Catalysts Using Aberration Corrected STEM

The global energy shortage requires the substitute of new energy strategy and various type of new materials are investigated for energy conversion purpose, including thermoelectric, ferroelectric, superconductors, etc.[1,2]. Among them fuel cell batteries are of particular interest due to their high capacity, good stability and reliability. The oxygen reduction reaction (ORR) in the fuel cells plays an important role in the energy generation, but the cost of the cathode/anode catalysts, which mainly contains Pt or Pd, limit its application due to their high production cost. In order to reduce the cost for the usage of precious materials, abundant materials with relative good catalytic properties, such as Co, Ni, can be synthesized with the Pt or Pd to achieve equal or better catalytic performance than the pure Pt nano-particle catalysts. In this work, different ratio of Pt-Co, Pt-Ni and Pt-Co-Cu nanoparticles were synthesized by wet chemical methods. By carefully controlling the experimental parameters, octahedral metal alloys or dodecahedral core shell nanoparticles can be synthesized. The catalytic properties were measured and it was found that some of these nanoparticles have comparable catalytic properties to the commercial 60% Pt/Vulcan products.