PtCo incorporated porous carbon nanofiber as a promising oxygen reduction electrocatalyst

Designing oxygen reduction reaction (ORR) catalysts with high activity and long durability is significant for the development of proton exchange membrane fuel cells. Herein, the optimized platinum nanowires are used as templates for inducing growth of cobalt-containing metal-organic framework, deriving uniform nanofibers. After the calcination, the metal ions are transferred into the nitrogen-rich porous carbon, and wrapped by the carbon skeleton to form the PtCo bimetal incorporated nanofibers as high-performance ORR electrocatalyst. The Pt₄Co@NC-900 catalyst yields high specific activity (1.37 mA cm⁻²) in comparison to Pt/C (0.38 mA cm⁻²). The mass activity (MA) of Pt₄Co@NC-900 catalyst is approximately 3.8-fold higher than that of the commercial Pt/C under acidic conditions. After the accelerated durability tests, the Pt₄Co@NC-900 catalyst presents only 16% loss in MA, while Pt/C catalyst retains 73.0% of the initial MA. The improved ORR performance can be ascribed to the synergistic interaction between Co and Pt.