Development and characterisation of electrocatalysts for polymer electrolyte fuel cells

In Polymer Electrolyte Fuel Cells (PEFCs) Gas Diffusion Electrodes (GDE) are used. These electrodes traditionally consist of catalyst nanoparticles (Pt or alloys as Pt-Ru) deposited on porous and high surface carbon substrates. In this work we describe a new electrodeposition method: applying an electric field to deposit catalyst on different carbon supports, we obtain a good Pt nanoparticles distribution localized in reaction sites. Chemical analysis, cyclic voltammetry (CV) and FEG-SEM technique are used to determine electrochemical characteristics of Pt deposit and the influence of electrodeposition method on the nano-morphology. Electrocatalytic performances were carried out by oxygen reduction reaction (ORR) and methanol oxidation reaction (MOR) in H2SO4, re-calculating data in the form of mass specific activity (MSA) and surface specific activity (SSA) to take in account the real electrochemical surface of Pt loading. A comparison with commercial Pt/C catalysts shows an higher activity, at lower Pt loading, for our materials.