Sub‐3 nm Intermetallic Ordered Pt₃In Clusters for Oxygen Reduction Reaction

Abstract

Industrial applications of Pt-based oxygen-reduction-reaction (ORR) catalysts are limited by high cost and low stability. Here, facile large-scale synthesis of sub-3-nm ordered Pt₃In clusters on commercial carbon black as ORR catalyst that alleviates both these shortcomings is reported. As-prepared Pt₃In/C exhibits a mass activity of 0.71 mA mg^-1 and a specific area activity of 0.91 mA cm^-2 at 0.9 V vs reversible hydrogen electrode, which are 4.1 and 2.7 times the corresponding values of commercial Pt/C catalysts. The as-prepared ordered Pt₃In/C catalyst is also remarkably stable with negligible activity and structural decay after 20 000 accelerated electrochemical durability cycles, due to its ordered structure. Density-functional-theory calculations demonstrate that ordered-Pt₃In is more energetically favorable for ORR than the commercial Pt/C catalysts because ∆<i>G</i> _O is closer to the peak of the volcano plot after ordered incorporation of indium atoms.