Influence of the preparation method on Pt3Cu/C electrocatalysts for the oxygen reduction reaction

• Pt3Cu/C synthesized by thermal reduction, chemical reduction or alloying method.
• Multi wall carbon nanotubes used as carbon support.
• Pt3Cu/C by chemical reduction shows the best mass activity.
• The lower the Pt particle size the higher the mass activity.

Pt3Cu nanoparticles are deposited on multi wall carbon nanotubes (MWCNT) according to three different types of synthesis: a thermal reduction using an aprotic solvent (“thermal method”, TM), a chemical reduction using sodium borohydride (“chemical method”, CM), and an alloy method (“alloy method”, AM). The catalysts are characterized by means of BET, FESEM, EDX, XRD, ICP-MS and XPS analyses. The obtained catalysts display a Pt loading of 19.6–19.8 wt.%, with a Pt/Cu atomic ratio of 2.60–2.80. The electrocatalytic activity towards ORR is assessed by RDE in acid conditions (0.1 M HClO4). The best activity belongs to the Pt3Cu/C catalyst prepared by chemical reduction method (–10.300 mA mg−1Pt) at 900 mV, IR corrected.

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