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Updated: Nov 15, 2025
A Continuous-flow Photocatalytic Reactor for the Precisely Controlled Deposition of Metallic Nanoparticles
Published on: April 10, 2019
Resolving the nanoparticles' structure-property relationships at the atomic level: a study of Pt-based
Leonard Jean Moriau1, Armin Hrnjić1, Andraž Pavlišič2
1Department of Materials Chemistry, National Institute of Chemistry, Hajdrihova 19, 1000 Ljubljana, Slovenia.
Abstract:
Achieving highly active and stable oxygen reduction reaction performance at low platinum-group-metal loadings remains one of the grand challenges in the proton-exchange membrane fuel cells community. Currently, state-of-the-art electrocatalysts are high-surface-area-carbon-supported nanoalloys of platinum with different transition metals (Cu, Ni, Fe, and Co). Despite years of focused research, the established structure-property relationships are not able to explain and predict the electrochemical performance and behavior of the real nanoparticulate systems. In the first part of this work, we reveal the complexity of commercially available platinum-based electrocatalysts and their electrochemical behavior. In the second part, we introduce a bottom-up approach where atomically resolved properties, structural changes, and strain analysis are recorded as well as analyzed on an individual nanoparticle before and after electrochemical conditions (e.g. high current density). Our methodology offers a new level of understanding of structure-stability relationships of practically viable nanoparticulate systems.
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