Toyota Motor Engineering & Manufacturing North America, Inc.

University of Akron

Toyota Jidosha Kabushiki Kaisha

Xiaochen Shen

Hongfei Jia

Li Qin Zhou

Kan Huang

Zhenmeng Peng

Hisao Kato

Tomoyuki Nagai

A fuel cell catalyst for oxygen reduction reactions including Pt—Ni—Cu nanoparticles supported on nitrogen-doped mesoporous carbon (MPC) having enhanced activity and durability, and method of making said catalyst. The catalyst is synthesized by employing a solid state chemistry method, which involves thermally pretreating a N-doped MPC to remove moisture from the surface; impregnation of metal precursors on the N-doped MPC under vacuum condition; and reducing the metal precurors in a stream of CO and Hgas mixture.

Fuel cell cathode catalyst

A fuel cell catalyst for oxygen reduction reactions including Pt&#x2014;Ni&#x2014;Cu nanoparticles supported on nitrogen-doped mesoporous carbon (MPC) having enhanced activity and durability, and method of making said catalyst. The catalyst is synthesized by employing a solid state chemistry method, which involves thermally pretreating a N-doped MPC to remove moisture from the surface; impregnation of metal precursors on the N-doped MPC under vacuum condition; and reducing the metal precursors in a stream of CO and Hgas mixture.

Improved oxygen reduction reaction catalysts include octahedral nanoparticles of a platinum-copper-nickel alloy contacted by a secondary ionomer. The alloy can have a formula of PtCuNi, and the secondary ionomer can include an ionic liquid, 1-methyl-2,3,4,6,7,8-hexahydro-1H-pyrimido[1,2-a]pyrimidin-9-ium 1,1,2,2,3,3,4,4,4-nonafluorobutane-1-sulfonate ([MTBD][CFSO]). The oxygen reductions catalysts have improved stability, as well as mass area and specific area comparted to competing catalysts.

Composite made of ionic liquid and octahedral Pt&#x2014;Ni&#x2014;Cu alloy nanoparticles for oxygen reduction catalysis

Methods for making porous materials having metal alloy nanoparticles formed therein are described herein. By preparing a porous material and delivering the precursor solutions under vacuum, the metal precursors can be uniformly embedded within the pores of the porous material. Once absorption is complete, the porous material can be heated in the presence of one or more functional gases to reduce the metal precursors to metal alloy nanoparticles, and embed the metal alloy nanoparticles inside of the pores. As such, the metal alloy nanoparticles can be formed within the pores, while avoiding surface wetting and absorption problems which can occur with small pores.

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Akron, OH, United States of America

Xiaochen Shen