Synchrotron-Based In Situ Characterization of Carbon-Supported Platinum and Platinum Monolayer Electrocatalysts

A detailed understanding of oxidation/dissolution mechanisms of Pt is critical in designing durable catalysts for the oxygen reduction reaction (ORR), but exact mechanisms remain unclear. The present work explores the oxidation/dissolution of Pt and Pt monolayer (ML) electrocatalysts over a wide range of applied potentials using cells that facilitate in situ measurements by combining X-ray absorption spectroscopy (XAS) and X-ray diffraction (XRD) measurements. The X-ray absorption near edge structure (XANES) measurement demonstrated that Pt nanoparticle surfaces were oxidized from metallic Pt to α-PtO2-type oxide during the potential sweep from 0.41 to 1.5 V, and the transition state of O or OH adsorption on Pt and the onset of the place exchange process were revealed by the delta mu (Δμ) method. Only the top layers of Pt nanoparticles were oxidized, while the inner Pt atoms remained intact. At a higher potential over 1.9 V, α-PtO2-type surface oxides dissolve due to local acidification caused by the oxygen evolution reaction and carbon corrosion. Pt oxidation of PtML on the Pd nanoparticle electrocatalyst is considerably hampered compared with the Pt/C catalyst, presumably because preferential Pd oxidation proceeds at the defects in Pt MLs up to 0.91 V and through O penetrated through the Pt MLs by the place exchange process above 1.11 V.