Recent progress of Pt‐based oxygen reduction reaction catalysts for proton exchange membrane fuel cells

Abstract

Abstract With the increasing consumption of fossil fuels, proton exchange membrane fuel cells (PEMFCs) have attracted considerable attention as green and sustainable energy conversion devices. The slow kinetics of the cathodic oxygen reduction reaction (ORR) has a major impact on the performance of PEMFCs, and although platinum (Pt) can accelerate the reaction rate of the ORR, the scarcity and high cost of Pt resources still limit the development of PEMFCs. Therefore, the development of low‐cost high‐performance ORR catalysts is essential for the commercial application and development of PEMFCs. This paper reviews the research progress of researchers on Pt‐based ORR catalysts in recent years, including Pt/C catalysts, Pt‐based alloy catalysts, Pt‐based intermetallic compounds, and Pt‐based single‐atom catalysts (SACs), with a focus on Pt‐based alloy catalysts with different nanostructures. We described in detail the difficulties and solutions in the research process of various ORR catalysts and explained the principle of their activity enhancement with density functional theory (DFT). In addition, an outlook on the development of Pt‐based catalysts is given, and reducing the amount of Pt used and improving the performance of catalysts are the directions to work on in the coming period.