Up-Scaling Synthesis of a Nitrogen-Doped Intermetallic Ptni Electrocatalyst for Fuel Cell Applications Using a Parallel Continuous Flow Reactor

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Fuel cells are emerging as a promising solution for energy. Nitrogen (N)-doped intermetallic PtNi catalysts have been demonstrated as promising catalysts for the oxygen reduction reaction (ORR) in fuel cells, with remarkably enhanced activity and stability in an acidic electrolyte, superior to those of commercial Pt/C. Currently their commercial deployment remains constrained by the challenges of scaling up production while maintaining good control over catalyst morphology and performance. As fuel cell technology progresses from academic investigation to industrial application, developing a reliable scale-up strategy—from laboratory synthesis to industrial production—is critical for the realization of high-performance electrocatalysts in practical applications. Conventional batch-type reactors typically scale up the synthesis of PtNi nanoparticle catalysts by simply increasing the size of the reaction vessel. This strategy often compromises reaction control due to reduced heat transfer and mixing which results in increasing nanoparticle size and broad particle size distribution that diminishes catalytic performance. Herewith, we report an innovative parallel continuous flow reactor, which provides precise control of the reaction conditions at larger scales for stable and continuous production of PtNi NPs. The influence of the reactor and operation parameters including flow rate, precursor concentration, temperature, and post-processing on the particle quality has been systematically investigated to establish reactor conditions to reliably control particle composition and morphology. The particles are further processed by nitriding of PtNi/C in a gas-fluidized bed reactor. The results show that our bench-scale flow reactor can continuously synthesize PtNi catalysts with ultrasmall size down to 3 nm and size deviation of 0.3 nm, achieving a product rate of 3 g per hour. The PtNiN catalyst synthesized achieved the mass activity (MA) of 1.74 A mg Pt -1 at 0.9 V and the beginning-of-life (BOL) performance of 1.07 A cm −2 at 0.7 V. The present study provides a new solution for speeding up the commercialization of a high performance intermetallic PtNiN electrocatalyst.

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