In situ Spectroscopic Insight into the Origin of the Enhanced Performance of Bimetallic Nanocatalysts towards the Oxygen Reduction Reaction (ORR)

It is vital to understand the oxygen reduction reaction (ORR) mechanism at the molecular level for the rational design and synthesis of high activity fuel-cell catalysts. Surface enhanced Raman spectroscopy (SERS) is a powerful technique capable of detecting the bond vibrations of surface species in the low wavenumber range, however, using it to probe practical nanocatalysts remains extremely challenging. Herein, shell-isolated nanoparticle-enhanced Raman spectroscopy (SHINERS) was used to investigate ORR processes on the surface of bimetallic Pt₃ Co nanocatalyst structures. Direct spectroscopic evidence of *OOH suggests that ORR undergoes an associative mechanism on Pt₃ Co in both acidic and basic environments. Density functional theory (DFT) calculations show that the weak *O adsorption arise from electronic effect on the Pt₃ Co surface accounts for enhanced ORR activity. This work shows SHINERS is a promising technique for the real-time observation of catalytic processes.