New life of a forgotten method: Electrochemical route toward highly efficient Pt/C catalysts for low-temperature fuel cells Original Research Article

Driven by global environmental concerns, great efforts are currently made to develop novel, cheap and practical means for producing highly efficient electrocatalysts, specifically for the low-temperature fuel-cell applications. Employing an old but yet unexplored method based on electrochemical dispergation of platinum by the alternating current, we show that the freshly prepared Pt/C catalysts exhibit greatly enhanced catalytic activity (up to 350% for oxygen reduction and up to 200% for ethylene glycol oxidation) as compared with that of a commercially available counterpart (E-TEK). A key role in these reactions is attributed to a specific nanoparticle morphology. These findings should provide a revival of an ancient but simple and efficient electrochemical process and motivate further researches in the field.