Cryo- and xerogel carbon supported PtRu for DMFC anodes

Influence of the Synthesis Method for Pt Catalysts Supported on Highly Mesoporous Carbon Xerogel and Vulcan Carbon Black on the Electro-Oxidation of Methanol

“…In PEMFC the catalysts are usually based on Pt and supported on carbon black with high surface area. In the last few decades, growing literature has appeared concerning new carbon supports such as carbon nanotubes [3], carbon nanofibers [4], ordered mesoporous carbons and carbon xerogels and aerogels [2,5,6]. These materials could lead to the production of more stable and highly active catalysts, with low platinum loadings (<0.1 mg·cm −2 ) and therefore low cost [7].…”

“…For these reasons, improved catalysts are required. Research is mainly focusing on (i) the development of new catalyst syntheses taking into account alloy composition, nanometric dimensions and uniform distribution of the catalyst and (ii) the development of new carbon supports with high electric conductivity, high surface area and high mesoporosity in the pore size range of 20-40 nm [5].…”

Designing Nanostructured Carbon Xerogels

“…Carbon gels have also been explored as metal catalyst support for fuel cell applications. The fact of using carbon supported catalysts in fuel cells allows production costs to be reduced and performance and durability of the electrochemical system to be improved (Arbizzani et al, 2007;Job et al, 2008;Liu & Creager, 2010). One the most recent works in this research field was carried out by Liu and Creager (Liu & Creager, 2010).…”

“…For example, Figueiredo and co-workers (Figueiredo et al, 2006) evaluated the electrochemical performance of direct-methanol fuel cells (DMFCs) assembled with Pt-Ru catalyst supported on oxidized carbon xerogels and the results reported in that study demonstrated that resorcinol-formaldehyde carbon xerogels were effective as supports for Pt/Ru particles. Pt-Ru bimetallic catalysts were also prepared by Arbizzani and et al (Arbizzani et al, 2007) for their use as anodes in DMFCs. In that case, the carbon supports were mesoporous cryo and xerogel carbons and Pt-Ru catalysts were obtained by impregnation of carbon materials with H 2 PtCl 6 and RuCl 3 in ethylene glycol and later chemical reduction.…”

Synthesis of graphitic mesoporous carbons with different surface areas and their use in direct methanol fuel cells

“…Rao et al [1] observed that carbon materials with low surface areas, featuring a little contribution of pores below 20 nm, favoured high electrocatalyst utilization in the MEA of fuel cells with solid polymer electrolytes. Arbizzani et al [10] found that carbon supports with high accessible surface areas from pore size >20 nm would improve the contact of the PtRu electrocatalyst, methanol, and Nafion â ionomer in anode catalyst layers of DMFCs, leading to an improved DMFC performance. Thus the optimizations of pore structures for carbon supports are especially important in improving the fuel cell performance.…”