Stability of commercial Pt/C low temperature fuel cell catalyst: electrochemical IL-SEM study

Platinum catalyst stability has been investigated under potentiostatic and potentiodynamic conditions with and without the presence of chloride anions. The combination of rotating disc electrode (RDE) and identical location scanning electron microscopy (IL-SEM) methods reveals that potentiodynamic degradation is much more severe compared to the potentiostatic and that chloride enhances platinum dissolution thus catalyst degradation. IL-SEM method nicely shows the platinum dissolution and redeposition on the top of a catalyst film.