Growth of Porous Platinum Catalyst Structures on Tungsten Oxide Support Materials: A New Design for Electrodes

Hengge KA, Heinzl C, Perchthaler M, Geiger S, Mayrhofer KJJ, Scheu C (2017)

Publication Type: Journal article

Publication year: 2017

Journal

Crystal Growth and Design American Chemical Society

Book Volume: 17

Pages Range: 1661-1668

Journal Issue: 4

DOI: 10.1021/acs.cgd.6b01663

Abstract

The growth of a promising material system for high-temperature polymer-electrolyte-membrane fuel cells, namely, platinum (Pt) loaded tungsten suboxide (WO3-x) electrodes, has been studied in-depth. The template-free two-step synthesis results in highly porous three-dimensional networks of crystalline Pt nanorods on the WO3-x support. The formation and growth behavior of these catalyst morphologies are investigated as a function of the deposition time of the catalyst precursor by use of scanning electron microscopy and various transmission electron microscopy techniques. The analysis reveals that octahedral-shaped bulk crystals of the Pt-precursor are formed on the WO3-x support, which subsequently reduce during the thermal treatment. After a reduction time of 4 min, the core of the catalyst morphologies is still bulk material, composed of Pt nanoparticles embedded in a reduced form of the Pt precursor, while the outer shell is formed by a porous network of polycrystalline Pt. Electron tomography helps to reveal the connectivity of the Pt network and allows calculation of the surface area of a 100 nm × 100 nm portion. This is compared to the macroscopic value for the surface area of the samples' entire network obtained by cyclic voltammetry.

Involved external institutions

Max-Planck-Institut für Eisenforschung GmbH (MPIE) / Max Planck Institute for Iron Research DE Germany (DE) Elcore GmbH DE Germany (DE)

How to cite

APA:

Hengge, K.A., Heinzl, C., Perchthaler, M., Geiger, S., Mayrhofer, K.J.J., & Scheu, C. (2017). Growth of Porous Platinum Catalyst Structures on Tungsten Oxide Support Materials: A New Design for Electrodes. Crystal Growth and Design, 17(4), 1661-1668. https://doi.org/10.1021/acs.cgd.6b01663

MLA:

Hengge, Katharina A., et al. "Growth of Porous Platinum Catalyst Structures on Tungsten Oxide Support Materials: A New Design for Electrodes." Crystal Growth and Design 17.4 (2017): 1661-1668.

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