Communication—Electrochemical Stability of Pt/Pd(111) Model Core-Shell Structure in 80°C Perchloric Acid

Abstract

© The Author(s) 2017. Published by ECS. We investigated the electrochemical stability of a Pt/Pd(111) model core.shell structure for oxygen reduction reaction catalysts in 0.1MHClO4 at 80°C by performing potential cycles (PCs) between 0.6 and x V vs.RHE (x = 0.8.1.0; xV-PCs). Pristine Pt/Pd(111) shows an ORR activity four times higher than that of Pt(111), which considerably decreased after 5000 cycles of 0.9- and 1.0 V-PCs and remained nearly unchanged for the 0.8- and 0.85 V-PCs samples. These results suggest that the atomic-scale structural changes at the Pt/Pd interface that depend on PC windows determine the durability of Pd.Pt core.shell structures.