Highly active sites of Pt/Er dispersed N-doped hierarchical porous carbon for trifunctional electrocatalyst

Fabrication of Pt alloy with controlled morphology and size has drawn an attractive attention in developing active electrocatalysts for fuel cell and water splitting application. However, the effectively controlled synthesis strategy and morphology on N-doped carbon structure is still a challenging issue. Herein, a facile strategy for uniform dispersion of active sites of Pt/Er on the hierarchical N-doped carbon structure through pyrolysis in innert atmosphere is addopted. The developed product of Pt-Er@PCN-900 has exhibited efficacious trifunctional catalytic activity for hydrogen/oxygen evolution as well as oxygen reduction reaction. Comparatively, Pt-Er@PCN-900 with 8% Pt presents excellent performance than commercial 20%Pt/C. The present work highlights the importance of the rationalized dispersion of Pt/Er active sites for the future large-scale commercial applications of fuel cell and water splitting.