Co-Existence of Atomic Pt and CoPt Nanoclusters on Co/SnO(x) Mix-Oxide Demonstrates an Ultra-High-Performance Oxygen Reduction Reaction Activity

An effective approach for increasing the Noble metal-utilization by decorating the atomic Pt clusters (1 wt.%) on the CoO(2)@SnPd(2) nanoparticle (denoted as CSPP) for oxygen reduction reaction (ORR) is demonstrated in this study. For the optimum case when the impregnation temperature for Co-crystal growth is 50 °C (denoted as CSPP-50), the CoPt nanoalloys and Pt-clusters decoration with multiple metal-to-metal oxide interfaces are formed. Such a nanocatalyst (NC) outperforms the commercial Johnson Matthey-Pt/C (J.M.-Pt/C; 20 wt.% Pt) catalyst by 78-folds with an outstanding mass activity (MA) of 4330 mA mg(Pt)(−1) at 0.85 V vs. RHE in an alkaline medium (0.1 M KOH). The results of physical structure inspections along with electrochemical analysis suggest that such a remarkable ORR performance is dominated by the potential synergism between the surface anchored Pt-clusters, CoPt-nanoalloys, and adjacent SnPd(2) domain, where Pt-clusters offer ideal adsorption energy for O(2) splitting and CoPt-nanoalloys along with SnPd(2) domain boost the subsequent desorption of hydroxide ions (OH(−)).