Toward the Continuous Production of Multigram Quantities of Highly Uniform Supported Metallic Nanoparticles and Their Application for Synthesis of Superior Intermetallic Pt-Alloy ORR Electrocatalysts

A fast and facile pulse combustion (PC) method that allows for the continuous production of multigram quantities of high-metal-loaded and highly uniform supported metallic nanoparticles (SMNPs) is presented. Namely, various metal on carbon (M/C) composites have been prepared by using only three feedstock components: water, metal–salt, and the supporting material. The present approach can be elegantly utilized also for numerous other applications in electrocatalysis, heterogeneous catalysis, and sensors. In this study, the PC-prepared M/C composites were used as metal precursors for the Pt NPs deposition using double passivation with the galvanic displacement method (DP method). Lastly, by using thin-film rotating disc electrode (TF-RDE) and gas-diffusion electrode (GDE) methodologies, we show that the synergistic effects of combining PC technology with the DP method enable production of superior intermetallic Pt–M electrocatalysts with an improved oxygen reduction reaction (ORR) performance when compared to a commercial Pt–Co electrocatalyst for proton exchange membrane fuel cells (PEMFCs) application