Effect of Ce on the structure and properties of PtCu composite membrane electrodes

All the membrane electrodes were prepared by ion beam sputtering (IBS) apparatus. Vacuum annealing in combination with acid etching was used as post-processing. The high resolution transmission electron microscopy and X-ray diffraction were employed to investigate the surface morphology and alloying degree of samples. The electrochemical performance was used to detect hydrogen evolution property. The result confirmed that with the same condition of post-processing, the membrane electrode doped Ce had cross-bridged structure and higher alloying degree, and the electrochemical performance was enhanced by 92.25% compared to pure Pt.