Rapid Room-Temperature Synthesis of a Metastable Ordered Intermetallic Electrocatalyst

• DOI: 10.1021/jacs.8b09919
• Publication Date: 2019-01-16T20:26:47Z
• Authors: Yunfei Wang; Du Sun; Tomojit Chowdhury; Justine S. Wagner; Thomas J. Kempa; Anthony Shoji Hall
• Keywords: Nanomaterial-based catalyst; Metastability

Metal alloys with atomic scale ordering (ordered intermetallics) have emerged as a new class of high performance materials for mediating electrochemical reactions. However, ordered intermetallic nanostructures often require long synthesis times and/or temperature annealing to form because high-activation energy barrier interdiffusion must be overcome the constituent metals equilibrate into structures. Here we report direct metastable Pd31Bi12 at room-temperature in minutes via deposition. is highly active reduction O2 H2O, delivering specific activities over 35× higher than those commercial Pt and Pd nanocatalysts, placing it most Pd-based catalyst, best our knowledge, reported under similar testing conditions. Stability tests demonstrate minimal loss activity after 10,000 cycles, retention crystallinity. This study demonstrates method preparing intermetallics extraordinary catalytic room temperature, providing direction catalyst discovery synthesis.