Durability of Commercial Catalysts within Relevant Stress Testing Protocols

Abstract

In this study, we analyzed the durability of the commercial Pt/C catalysts with platinum loading of 20% and 40% using two different accelerated durability tests, i.e., using Ar or O2 when bubbling the electrolyte during testing. The structural analysis of the changes in the morphology of the catalysts was performed by XRD and TEM as well as the assessment of the degradation degree of the catalysts using the values of the specific surface area and ORR activity, both, before and after the stress testing. Regardless of the stress testing conditions, the JM20 material was established to degrade ESA and the catalytic activity to a greater extent than JM40, which may be due to the structural and morphological features of the catalysts and their evolution during the stress testing under various conditions. The JM20 material has been reported to exhibit a greater degree of degradation when bubbling the electrolyte with oxygen during the stress testing compared to argon, which may be explained by a different mechanism of degradation for the catalyst with the predominant oxidation of the carbon support, leading to a different nature of the distribution of the platinum nanoparticles over the surface of the carbon support, according to results that have estimated the number of nanoparticle intersections.