The Impact of Antimony on the Performance of Antimony Doped Tin Oxide Supported Platinum for the Oxygen Reduction Reaction

Antimony doped tin oxide (ATO) supported platinum nanoparticles are considered a more stable replacement for conventional carbon supported platinum materials for the oxygen reduction reaction. However, the interplay of antimony, tin and platinum and its impact on the catalytic activity and durability has only received minor attention. This is partly due to difficulties in the preparation of morphology- and surface-area-controlled antimony-doped tin oxide materials. The presented study sheds light onto catalyst-support interaction on a fundamental level, specifically between platinum as a catalyst and ATO as a support material. By using a previously described hard-templating method, a series of morphology controlled ATO support materials for platinum nanoparticles with different antimony doping concentrations were prepared. Compositional and morphological changes before and during accelerated stress tests are monitored, and underlying principles of deactivation, dissolution and catalytic performance are elaborated. We demonstrate that mobilized antimony species and strong metal support interactions lead to Pt/Sb alloy formation as well as partially blocking of active sites. This has adverse consequences on the accessible platinum surface area, and affects negatively the catalytic performance of platinum. Operando time-resolved dissolution experiments uncover the potential boundary conditions at which antimony dissolution can be effectively suppressed and how platinum influences the dissolution behavior of the support.