Compositional Evaluation of Coreduced Fe–Pt Metal Acetylacetonates As PEM Fuel Cell Cathode Catalyst

Platinum iron nanoparticles were produced by solvothermal coreduction of organic Fe and Pt precursor compounds and supported on conventional Vulcan XC 72. Evaluation of oxygen reduction performance reveals a highly active surface with up to 5 times the specific activity of commercial Pt Vulcan measured in O-2-saturated 0.1 M HClO4. A particle size of 5.5 nm for the best performing sample, produced from an initial metal ratio of 1:1, provided 28% higher mass activity than the commercial reference. Membrane electrode assemblies, optimized for both H-2/O-2 and direct formic acid fuel cells, were produced, and the PEM fuel cell cathodic performance displayed results with similar enhancements as its ex situ measured mass activity, although a delamination of the catalyst layer from the membrane could be observed even when employing a hot-pressing procedure during MEA fabrication. Physical characterizations including X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy and in situ X-ray diffraction reveal oxidized states of Fe incorporated into the disordered face-centered cubic Pt nanoparticles, supported by composition-dependent morphological changes as observed by transmission electron microscopy. The provided insight into fuel cell performance as well as CO-oxidation attributes are expected to assist in selecting suitable applications and operating conditions for such FePt type nanoparticles.