Carbon nitride-assisted thermal treatment for sintering-resistant Pt/C catalysts

[EN] High-temperature annealing often induces severe sintering of Pt nanoparticles in Pt/C catalysts, resulting in activity degradation. Here, a carbon nitride-assisted thermal treatment strategy is proposed to enhance the thermal stability of Pt/C. TG-FTIR and XPS analysis reveal that nitrogen-cont...

Descripción completa

Detalles Bibliográficos
Autores: Li, Junyi, Wang, Ying, Tian, Liang|||0000-0002-3801-653X
Tipo de recurso: artículo
Fecha de publicación:2026
País:España
Institución:Universitat Politècnica de València (UPV)
Repositorio:RiuNet. Repositorio Institucional de la Universitat Politécnica de Valéncia
Idioma:inglés
OAI Identifier:oai:dnet:riunet______::2c09a7ad1a8fb5db47f1afc04f8c1420
Acceso en línea:https://riunet.upv.es/handle/10251/233937
Access Level:acceso abierto
Palabra clave:Carbon nitride decomposition
Platinum nanoparticles
Sintering suppression
Oxygen reduction reaction
Electrochemical durability
Descripción
Sumario:[EN] High-temperature annealing often induces severe sintering of Pt nanoparticles in Pt/C catalysts, resulting in activity degradation. Here, a carbon nitride-assisted thermal treatment strategy is proposed to enhance the thermal stability of Pt/C. TG-FTIR and XPS analysis reveal that nitrogen-containing species generated during carbon nitride decomposition play a key role in suppressing Pt nanoparticle coalescence at intermediate temperatures. Although the carbon nitride framework decomposes at high temperatures, residual graphitic and pyridinic nitrogen species are retained and interact electronically with Pt, leading to a reduced Pt binding energy. As a result, the carbon nitride-assisted Pt/C maintains a narrow particle size distribution after annealing. Electrochemical measurements demonstrate that the assisted catalyst retains oxygen reduction reaction activity comparable to commercial Pt/C after thermal treatment at 700 degrees C, while the untreated sample shows pronounced performance loss. Moreover, the assisted catalyst exhibits significantly improved durability after 20 000 cycles. This work offers a simple and effective approach to improving the thermal robustness of Pt-based electrocatalysts for PEM fuel cells.