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Updated: Mar 10, 2026

Applying Dynamic Strain on Thin Oxide Films Immobilized on a Pseudoelastic Nickel-Titanium Alloy
Published on: July 28, 2020
Biaxially strained PtPb/Pt core/shell nanoplate boosts oxygen reduction catalysis
Lingzheng Bu1, Nan Zhang1, Shaojun Guo2,3,4
1College of Chemistry, Chemical Engineering and Materials Science, Soochow University, Jiangsu 215123, China.
Abstract:
Compressive surface strains have been necessary to boost oxygen reduction reaction (ORR) activity in core/shell M/platinum (Pt) catalysts (where M can be nickel, cobalt, or iron). We report on a class of platinum-lead/platinum (PtPb/Pt) core/shell nanoplate catalysts that exhibit large biaxial strains. The stable Pt (110) facets of the nanoplates have high ORR specific and mass activities that reach 7.8 milliampere (mA) per centimeter squared and 4.3 ampere per milligram of platinum at 0.9 volts versus the reversible hydrogen electrode (RHE), respectively. Density functional theory calculations reveal that the edge-Pt and top (bottom)-Pt (110) facets undergo large tensile strains that help optimize the Pt-O bond strength. The intermetallic core and uniform four layers of Pt shell of the PtPb/Pt nanoplates appear to underlie the high endurance of these catalysts, which can undergo 50,000 voltage cycles with negligible activity decay and no apparent structure and composition changes.
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