Enhanced oxygen reduction catalytic performance of PtNi alloy through modulating metal–support interaction

Tuning metal–support interaction had been regarded as an effective strategy to adjust the electronic structure, catalytic activity and durability of supported metal catalysts. Herein, we design PtNi alloy on nitrogen-doped carbon and SnO2 dual-support and modulate the metal–support interaction. SnO2/PtNi/NC presents strongly coupled SnO2-PtNi-NC interface with lattice overlap of SnO2 (200), Pt (111), Pt (200), and graphitized carbon, along with enhanced electron transfer. SnO2/PtNi/NC has an improved catalytic activity and enhanced stability for oxygen reduction reaction. SnO2/PtNi/NC catalyst had a half-wave potential of 0.886 V versus reversible hydrogen electrode (RHE) in an acidic solution, higher than PtNi/NC (0.785 V vs. RHE) and commercial Pt/C (0.846 V vs. RHE). Furthermore, the current retention of SnO2/PtNi/NC (87.3 %) is also larger than that of commercial Pt/C (56.8 %) and PtNi/NC (19.8 %) after 1000 times start-stops. This study sheds light on the understanding effect of metal–support interaction on the durability of heterogeneous electrocatalysts.