Non-precious metal electrocatalysts with high activity for hydrogen oxidation reaction in alkaline electrolytes
A ternary metallic CoNiMo catalyst is electrochemically deposited on a polycrystalline gold (Au) disk electrode using pulse voltammetry, and characterized for hydrogen oxidation reaction (HOR) activity by temperature-controlled rotating disk electrode measurements in 0.1 M potassium hydroxide (KOH). The catalyst exhibits the highest HOR activity among all non-precious metal catalysts (e.g., 20 fold higher than Ni). At a sufficient loading, the CoNiMo catalyst is expected to outperform Pt and thus provides a promising low cost pathway for alkaline or alkaline membrane fuel cells. Density functional theory (DFT) calculations and parallel H-2-temperature programmed desorption (TPD) experiments on structurally much simpler model alloy systems show a trend that CoNiMo has a hydrogen binding energy (HBE) similar to Pt and much lower than Ni, suggesting that the formation of multi-metallic bonds modifies the HBE of Ni and is likely a significant contributing factor for the enhanced HOR activity.
- Sponsoring Organization:
- USDOE Advanced Research Projects Agency - Energy (ARPA-E)
- DOE Contract Number:
- DE-AR0000009
- OSTI ID:
- 1211257
- Journal Information:
- Energy & Environmental Science, Vol. 7, Issue 5; ISSN 1754-5692
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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