Constructing highly durable reversal-tolerant anodes via integrating high-surface-area Ti₄O₇ supported Pt and Ir@IrO_x for proton exchange membrane fuel cells

Fuel starvation during the fuel cell operation inevitably leads to high potential anodes, which causes carbon corrosion and catalyst layer collapse and poses a challenge to the durability of proton exchange membrane fuel cells. Herein, Ti4O7 with a high specific surface area was synthesized facilely and utilized to replace carbon as the anode catalyst support. Previously, the initial performance of the Ti4O7 -supported catalyst was obstructed by the disadvantaged electrical conductivity of Ti4O7 . This work obtains a comparable polarization performance after optimizing the Ti4O7 -supported anode catalyst layer parameters by shortening the electron transfer pathway and increasing metal coverage. Meanwhile, reversal-tolerant anodes (RTAs) were fabricated by the traditional IrO2 addition and core-shell structured Ir@IrOx to validate the applicability of the Ti4O7 support. Typically, the Ir@IrOx/Pt/Ti4O7 -fabricated RTA with low Ir loading displays an approximately ten times longer reversal time (6 hours) and two orders of magnitude lower degradation rate than a conventional carbon-supported counterpart. The degradation origin of the Ti4O7 -supported anodes was also studied by postmortem characterizations, pointing to the Pt oxidation caused by the formation of TiOx thin layers on the Pt surface. The study aims to promote the development of carbon-free anodes and provide a bright perspective for practical high-performance, low-degradation, and cost-friendly RTA fabrication.