One-Pot Synthesis of Pt–Pd Bimetallic Nanodendrites with Enhanced Electrocatalytic Activity for Oxygen Reduction Reaction

One-pot synthesis Pt–Pd bimetallic nanostructure has become a promising way to get superior oxygen reduction reaction performance and cost-effective electrocatalyst for proton exchange membrane fuel cells. In this work, we report a facile one-pot method by tuning the feed ratio of Pt and Pd (Pt3Pd1, Pt2Pd1, and Pt1Pd1) in ethylene glycol solution at the effect of iodide ions and poly(vinylpyrrolidone) to synthesize three different Pt–Pd bimetallic nanodendrites structure. Transmission electron microscopy and high-resolution transmission electron microscopy revealed that the nanodendrites have a Pt-rich surface structure and numerous high-index facets at the branch’s surface, thus providing a great deal of catalytic sites. Carbon-supported Pt–Pd nanodendrite catalysts were investigated for oxygen reduction reaction performance and accelerated durability test. The Pt1Pd1/C catalyst shows the best activity and durability and with a mass activity of 1.164 A mgPt–1 and a specific activity of 1.33 mA cm–2, greatly enhanced compared with commercial TKK-Pt/C catalysts (0.15 A mgPt–1 for mass activity, and 0.25 mA cm–2 for a specific activity). The Pt1Pd1/C catalyst also exhibits remarkable durability with almost negligible decay in performance after 10 000 cycles. These results provide us an attractive strategy for designing catalysts with a simple route, lower cost, and remarkable catalytic activity and durability.