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Updated: Aug 6, 2026
Synthesis of Metal Nanoparticles Supported on Carbon Nanotube with Doped Co and N Atoms and its Catalytic Applications in Hydrogen Production
Published on: December 6, 2021
Pt Nanoparticles on Graphene Doped by Boron Carbide With Strong Electronic Metal-Support Interaction for Efficient
Chengfu Tan1, Chao Hao1, Mingjie Lin1
1Collaborative Innovation Center of Sustainable Energy Materials, School of Physical Science and Technology, Guangxi Key Laboratory of Electrochemical Energy Materials, State Key Laboratory of Featured Metal Materials and Life-cycle Safety for Composite Structures, Guangxi University, Nanning, China.
Abstract:
Developing a durable cathode catalyst layer (CCL) with ultra-low Pt loading <50 µgPt cm-2 for oxygen reduction reaction (ORR) is essential to substantially advancing the wide adoption of proton exchange membrane fuel cells (PEMFCs). Herein, a robust CCL was developed based on a 3D porous boron carbide-doped graphene film synthesized by the arc discharge method as an integrated electrode framework. The specific boron carbide doping with B4C and BC3 dopants endows graphene with a highly graphitic lattice and abundant electron-deficient sites, which not only generates anchoring sites for the atomic layer deposition of highly dispersed Pt, but also induces strong electronic metal-support interactions via Pt (dx 2, dz 2)/B (px, py) orbital hybridization with a downshift of the Pt d-band center. As a result, the PEMFC with the CCL at 47.5 µgPt cm-2 delivers a high-power density of 1.12 W·cm-2 (H2/air at 150 kPa) with a 38% enhancement than that of the commercial Pt/C (200 µgPt cm-2) and an outstanding durability fully satisfying the 2025 technical targets of U.S. Department of Energy. This work provides a new approach of breaking the tradeoff between activity and durability for developing PEMFCs with <50 µgPt cm-2 via a strong electronic metal-support interaction.
