Dataset on electrochemical stability and activity of Au-decorated Pt surface for oxygen reduction reaction in acidic media

Hydrogen-air proton exchange membrane fuel cells (PEMFC) have been drawn considerable attention as one of clean energy sources for transportation applications. To achieve the long lifetime of PEMFC for the transportation application, it is required to reduce the loss of electrochemical surface area which is known to result from dissolution of Pt nanoparticles and the size change of nanoparticle. Herein, we decorated Au on commercial Pt/C catalyst with various ratio of Au: Pt in a range of 2 to 0.33: 1 using a chemical reduction method with trisodium citrate. X-ray Diffraction (XRD) result clearly shows that the Au are well deposited on the surface of Pt/C catalysts. The electrochemical surface areas of catalyst are assessed as a function of Au concentration potential cycling in accelerated degradation tests. Furthermore, the oxygen reduction reaction (ORR) activity of Au–Pt/C is also estimated in comparison with that of commercial Pt/C using a single cell operation. X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy analysis shows that Au incorporation on Pt/C changes electron density of Pt surface and, consequently more reductive because of difference in work function between Au and Pt. Finally, we provide a series of dataset on the effect of Au on the surface of Pt/C catalyst to stabilize the electrochemical surface area.