PtCo cathode electrocatalyst behaviour viewed by in-situ XAFS fuel cell measurements

The paper presents a preliminary structural investigation of the 20% Pt–Co (1:1) alloy on Vulcan XC-72 catalyst using X-ray absorption spectroscopy (XAS), transmission electron microscopy (TEM) and X-ray diffraction (XRD). XAS results have been obtained ex situ and in situ using a specially optimized for XAS measurement fuel cell (down to 6 keV). The results are compared with those obtained for pure Pt catalyst on the same carbon support under the same working conditions.