Developing highly active and stable oxygen reduction reaction (ORR) electrocatalysts is crucial for practical energy devices. This study synthesizes PtFe alloy nanoparticles supported on nitrogen-doped carbon (PtFe–N–C) via a microflower-templated strategy. A zinc-based microflower scaffold directs the in situ growth of a polymeric Schiff base (PSB), which coordinates Fe3+ and Pt precursors. During pyrolysis under nitrogen, the coordinated metals are synergistically reduced to form PtFe–N–C. The resulting catalyst exhibits exceptional ORR performance in acidic media, with a half-wave potential of 0.84 V vs RHE and a mass activity 4.3 times higher than commercial Pt/C. It also demonstrates outstanding durability, with significantly less performance decay after 30,000 cycles. Inductively coupled plasma–mass spectrometry quantitative analysis reveals that the Pt loading in the catalyst is only 1.15 wt %, which highlights its superior Pt utilization efficiency. This work presents a high-performance ORR electrocatalyst and establishes a design principle for carbon-supported precious metal alloy nanoparticles through rational interface engineering.
Li et al. (Thu,) studied this question.