Influence of Acid Treatment on the Functional Characteristics of PtCu/C Electrocatalysts

Two-component catalysts based on Pt-M bimetallic nanoparticlesNanoparticles (NPs) distributed on carbon supportCarbon support are very promising for use in low-temperature fuel cellsFuel cell (PEM FC) with a proton-exchangeProton membrane (PEM FC). At the first stage, it is necessary to obtain materials with high activity toward ORR and increased stabilityStability in stress test to use PtCu/CPtCu/C catalysts in PEM FCFuel cell (PEM FC). At the second stage, it is necessary to carry out additional acid treatment of the catalysts in order to remove copper from the surface layer to minimize its selective dissolution, because it is known that Cu2+ cations can contaminate the polymer membrane, reducing its protonProton conductivity. In this work, we determined the structural parameters and composition, and also studied the electrochemical behavior of PtCu/CPtCu/C catalysts containing nanoparticlesNanoparticles (NPs) with a “gradient” structure in the initial state (as obtained) and after pretreatment in solutions of acid. Comparative determination of the activity of the catalysts showed that the pretreatment PtCu/CPtCu/C materials, which have a significantly higher stabilityStability compared to Pt/CPt/C, are not inferior to the latter in terms of their activity in the oxygen electroreduction reaction.