Catalytic performance comparison of shape-dependent nanocrystals and oriented ultra thin films of Pt4Cu alloy in the formic acid oxidation process

Research efforts continue to focus on the development of viable and cost effective fuel cell catalysts with minimized Pt content. This work presents a comparison study between Pt4Cu nanocubes and nano-octahedra as well as Pt4Cu (100) and (111) thin films used as catalysts for formic acid oxidation. The paper introduces a novel synthetic method for Pt 4Cu nano-octahedra and it also demonstrates for the first time the use of surface limited redox replacement of Pb underpotentially deposited layer for epitaxial growth of thin alloy films. Overall, the nanoparticle catalysts exhibit superior performance in terms of durability when compared to their thin film counterparts, but feature nearly five-fold lower activity. As a result it was determined that both types of catalysts accumulate nearly equal charge density in their lifespan. In terms of crystallographic orientation, the results indicate that the nanocubes and Pt4Cu (100) thin films outperform the nano-octahedra and Pt4Cu (111) thin films in terms of durability but feature equal to slightly lower activity. This significant difference in durability of catalysts with different crystallographic orientation is attributed to interplay of passivation (from CO poisoning and Pt oxidation) and dissolution of Pt. When compared to pure Pt catalysts (nanoparticles and thin films), all of the Pt4Cu catalysts in this work exhibit superior performance towards formic acid oxidation in terms of activity and durability.