Nanostructured Platinum and Carbon Supported Pt-Ni Catalyst for Polymer Electrolyte Fuel Cell

Abstract

Among various types of fuel cells, the polymer electrolyte exchange membrane fuel cell (PEFC) using hydrogen and alcolhol are promising to be commercialized for vehicles due to hydrogen and alcohol usage. Till now, platium (Pt) is the most effective catalyst for electrode reactions in fuel cells. However, challenges for this catalyst are its scarcity and high cost, as well as the poisoning by the intermediates of the fuel oxidation, such as CO. Using nanoscale metallic or bimetallic electrocatalytic materials is supposed to facilitate the cost reducing and to increase the catalytic activity. In this work, nanoscale bimetallic PtNi catalysts with different atom ratios of Pt to Ni on carbon support (PtNi/C) have been synthesized by the polyol reduction method under ultrasonic irradiation. The reducing reagent was ethylene glycol (EG) and NaBH4 and support materials were carbon Vulcan XC-72R and carbon nanotube (CNT). The morphology, structure and specific area of synthesized materials were analyzed by transmission electron microscopy (TEM), nitrogen adsorption (BET) and X-Ray diffraction (XRD). The electrocatalytic activity of Pt/C, PtRu/C, PtNi/C and commercial Pt/C electrodes (Aldrich Sigma, 10%wt Pt/activated carbon) for alcohol oxidation was investigated by cyclic voltammetry (CV) and chronoamperometry (CA). The electrocatalyst for oxygene reduction reaction (ORR) was evaluated using Rotating Disk Electrode (RDE) techniques in acidic solution contanning 20mg/L dissolved oxygene at 25oC.

Document Details

Document Type
Pub Defense Publication
Publication Date
Aug 05, 2014
Source ID
10.1149/ma2014-02/21/1142

Entities

People

  • My Loan Phung Le
  • Tran Van Man
  • Vu Thi Hong Phuong

Tags

Fields of Study

  • Materials science

Readers

  • Combustion science or combustion engineering.
  • Electrochemical Surface Science
  • Nanocomposite Materials Science

Technology Areas

  • Biotechnology
  • Microelectronics