Corrosion-resistant catalyst

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-10164265-B2
Application number	US-201615284032-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Oct 3, 2016
Priority date	Oct 23, 2015
Publication date	Dec 25, 2018
Grant date	Dec 25, 2018

Abstract

A method for forming a corrosion-resistant catalyst for fuel cell catalyst layers is provided. The method includes a step of depositing a conformal Pt or platinum alloy thin layer on NbO 2 substrate particles to form Pt-coated NbO 2 . The Pt-coated NbO 2 particles are then incorporated into a fuel cell catalyst layer.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A method for forming a corrosion-resistant catalyst comprising:
depositing a conformal platinum layer or platinum alloy layer on NbO 2 substrate particles to form Pt-coated NbO 2 particles, the depositing of the conformal platinum layer or platinum alloy layer comprising a reductive H 2 -plasma atomic layer deposition process during which a surface layer of the NbO 2 substrate particles is reduced to NbO or Nb and platinum or platinum alloy is grown on the surface layer; and
incorporating the Pt-coated NbO 2 particles into a fuel cell catalyst layer.

2. The method of claim 1 wherein, following the growth of platinum or platinum alloy on the surface layer of NbO or Nb by the reductive H 2 -plasma atomic layer deposition process, platinum or platinum alloy is grown on the already-deposited platinum or platinum alloy by a H 2 thermal atomic layer deposition process.

3. The method of claim 1 wherein a platinum alloy layer is deposited, the platinum alloy layer including a component selected from the group consisting of platinum-iridium alloys, platinum-palladium alloys, and platinum-gold alloys.

4. The method of claim 1 wherein the platinum layer or platinum alloy layer has a thickness from about 0.3 to 20 nm.

5. The method of claim 1 wherein a conformal platinum layer is deposited on NbO 2 substrate particles, and wherein the reductive H 2 -plasma atomic layer deposition process comprises a deposition cycle in which (1) the NbO 2 substrate particles are contacted with vapor of a platinum-containing compound such that at least a portion of the vapor of the platinum-containing compound adsorbs or reacts with a surface of the NbO 2 substrate particles to form a modified surface and (2) the modified surface of the NbO 2 substrate particles is contacted with H 2 plasma to deposit platinum and form at least a portion of the conformal platinum layer.

6. The method of claim 5 wherein the platinum-containing compound is trimethyl(methylcyclopentadienyl)platinum.

7. The method of claim 5 wherein the deposition cycle is at a temperature from about 50 to 400 °C.

8. The method of claim 5 wherein a pressure for the deposition cycle is from about 10 −6 Torr to about 760 Torr.

9. The method of claim 5 wherein a pressure for the deposition cycle is from about 0.1 millitorr to about 10 Torr.

10. The method of claim 5 wherein the NbO 2 substrate particles are subjected to 1 to 5000 deposition cycles.

11. The method of claim 5 wherein the NbO 2 substrate particles are subjected to 10 to 300 deposition cycles.

Assignees

• Gm Global Tech Operations Llc
• Univ Colorado Regents
• Univ Colorado Regents

Inventors

• Kongkanand Anusorn
• Clancey Joel W
• George Steven M

Classifications

• H01M4/921

  Alloys or mixtures with metallic elements · CPC title

• C23C16/0281 Primary

  of metallic sub-layers (C23C16/029 takes precedence) · CPC title

• H01M4/925 Primary

  supported on carriers, e.g. powder carriers · CPC title

• C23C16/45536

  Use of plasma, radiation or electromagnetic fields · CPC title

• H01M4/8867

  Vapour deposition · CPC title