(475g) Material Design for High-Performance Electrocatalyst for the Reduction of Oxygen

Requirements of high activity, stability and low cost post new challenges for the design of advanced electrocatalysts. In this talk, I will mainly present recent approaches to the design of core-shell bimetallic nanostructures as low-platinum group metal (PGM) catalysts for electrochemical reduction of oxygen. In all cases, design and processing of catalysts with optimal surface atomic structures and favored dynamics under reactive environments are important. In situ, variable-temperature environmental transmission electron microscopy (TEM) techniques can be quite useful in this regard for the realization of designed structures, such as preferred catalyst surfaces both in atomic arrangement and composition. Such information helps in the control of catalyst with high-level of accuracy. The focus will be on the solution phase design and post-synthesis treatment of nanoparticle catalysts based on both theoretical and experimental understanding; in-situ environmental TEM (ETEM) in studying the dynamics of structural behavior of electrocatalyst under reactive environment; and structure-property relationship of bimetallic catalysts towards oxygen reduction reaction (ORR).