Platinum-based catalytic system could cut cost of fuel cells

In the study, which was published in Nano Letters, the researchers from the Georgia Institute of Technology described a possible new way to overcome sintering, a key cause degradation in platinum catalysts in which particles of platinum migrate and clump together. This reduces the specific surface area of the platinum and causes catalytic activity to drop.

To reduce sintering, the researchers devised a method to anchor the platinum particles to their carbon support material using selenium.

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"There are strategies out there to mitigate sintering, such as using platinum particles that are uniform in size to reduce chemical instability among them," said Zhengming Cao, a visiting graduate student at Georgia Tech. "This new method using selenium results in a strong metal-support interaction between platinum and the carbon support material and thus remarkably enhanced durability. At the same time, the platinum particles can be used and kept at a small to attain high catalytic activity from the increased specific surface area."