Rapid microwave-assisted solvothermal synthesis of shape-controlled Pt-Ni alloy nanoparticles for PEMFC

This work reports the application of the microwave-assisted solvothermal process to synthesize Pt-Ni alloy polyhedral nanoparticles for oxygen reduction reaction (ORR). Well-faceted nanoparticles, mainly octahedral and tetrahedral ones were generated. All the as-prepared Pt-Ni nanocrystals are uniformly dispersed on the carbon support. HR-TEM images confirm that the polyhedral nanoparticles are exposed by (111) facets. When the number of pulses is 12, rotating disk electrode (RDE) demonstrate ORR activities of the as-prepared catalysts with the highest mass activity of 1.217 A·mgPt−1 and specific activity of 4.41 mA cm−2Pt at 0.9ViR-free, which is over 11 and 25 times than that of Pt/C catalyst, respectively. Even after being prepared into MEA, the catalyst prepared by 12 microwave pulses still possesses higher performance than commercial Pt/C. Thus, this method can greatly shorten the preparation time to expand the scale of production of the high-performance electrocatalyst.