Study of the degradation mechanisms of carbon-supported platinum fuel cells catalyst via different accelerated stress test

A combination method based on three different accelerated stress test (AST) protocols along with the monitoring of electrochemical surface area (ECSA), oxygen reduction reaction (ORR) activities, X-Ray photoelectron spectrometer (XPS), transmission electron microscopy (TEM), and electrochemical impedance spectroscopy (EIS) response is introduced to investigate the degradation mechanisms of carbon-supported platinum (Pt/C) catalyst. By comparing the ECSA and ORR activity loss under different AST protocols, we revealed that the activity loss in AST can be divided into recoverable activity loss and unrecoverable activity loss. The recoverable activity loss is attributed to the reduction of Pt oxide or partially due to the removal of CO formed during carbon corrosion. The unrecoverable activity loss is ascribed to the Pt dissolution/re-deposition, agglomeration, detachment and carbon corrosion. XPS results show that the Pt dissolution/re-deposition in AST can be detected by using a more negative potential window. TEM images and analysis confirmed that the Pt growth mode in this study is mainly due to the Pt agglomeration rather than dissolution/re-deposition. EIS analysis reveals that the alternative decomposition/formation of oxygen containing groups over time is the main corrosion pathway of carbon support. These findings are very important for understanding Pt/C catalyst degradation and are also useful for developing fast test protocol for screening new durable catalyst materials.