Electrocatalyst with fluorinated protective layer for efficient oxygen reduction in the operating temperature of PEMFCs

One of the important factors affecting the actual service life of proton exchange membrane fuel cells (PEMFCs) is that catalysts agglomeration and carbon carrier corrosion will be accelerated by operating temperatures. In this paper, through a simple F-doping strategy, F-doped carbon-supported PtZn i-NPs (PtZn i-NPs/F-C) catalysts were prepared. The metal-support interaction (MSI) was enhanced by doping the element F. This also inhibited catalyst aggregation and increased Pt element oxygen reduction reaction (ORR) activity. Aside from this, the electronegativity of F prevents reactive oxygen species (ROS) from attacking the carbon support during the reaction process, ensuring that after 5000 CV cycles at 80 °C, the catalysts still maintain ∼0.856 V as a half-wave potential, only losing 9 mV, much higher than the half-wave potential of commercial Pt/C after 5000 CV cycles (∼0.777 mV). This work provides a brand-new perspective on solving the problems caused by the increase in the operating temperature of PEMFCs, and also provides a new idea for the preparation of electrocatalyst for ORR.