Bifunctional Electrocatalysis on Pd-Ni Core–Shell Nanoparticles for Hydrogen Oxidation Reaction in Alkaline Medium

Meital Shviro, Shlomi Polani, Rafal E. Dunin-Borkowski, David Zitoun

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

48 Scopus citations

Abstract

The development of alkaline exchange membrane fuel cell (AEMFC) is limited by the sluggish reaction at the anode. Even precious group metals (PGMs) are not effective hydrogen oxidation reaction (HOR) electrocatalysts in alkaline medium. In this manuscript, the original synthesis of effective HOR electrocatalysts for AEMFC is reported. Here, the limitations of using metal-organic precursors are described and their replacement with organometallic precursors is proposed. It is shown that completely different nanostructures can be synthesized by the organometallic route, resulting in the formation of NiPd nano-alloy or Ni@Pd core–shell nanoparticles, instead of Pd@Ni. The presence of both Pd and Ni on the catalyst surface has a drastic effect on its HOR activity, due to a bifunctional electrocatalytic mechanism with hydrogen binding on Pd and OH binding on Ni. The highest activity is measured for NiPd nano-alloy, whose specific activity reaches (Formula presented.) and (Formula presented.) at 0.1 V versus reversible hydrogen electrode at 298 K. These are the highest values reported so far for an NiPd catalyst. By design, the synthetic approach is generic and can be applied to any pair of metals, either PGM or other transition metals, to synthesize alloyed or core–shell electrocatalysts.

Original languageEnglish
Article number1701666
JournalAdvanced Materials Interfaces
Volume5
Issue number9
DOIs
StatePublished - 9 May 2018

Bibliographical note

Publisher Copyright:
© 2018 WILEY-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim

Funding

This work was partially supported the TEPS Magnet program, Office of the Chief Scientist (OCS), Ministry of Economy and Industry, Israel and by the Planning & Budgeting Committee of the Council of High Education and the Prime Minister Office of Israel, in the framework of the INREP project (Israel National Research Center on Electrochemical Propulsion). The authors acknowledge Dr. Marc Heggen for fruitful discussions and his constant support for the project.

FundersFunder number
Council of High Education
Ministry of Economy and Industry, Israel
Prime Minister office of Israel
Office of Community Services
Chief Scientist Office
Israel National Research Center for Electrochemical Propulsion

    Keywords

    • alkaline fuel cells
    • electrocatalysis
    • hydrogen oxidation reaction
    • nickel
    • organometallic

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