High pressure organic colloid method for the preparation of high performance carbon nanotube-supported Pt and PtRu catalysts for fuel cell applications

Abstract

Highly dispersed, high performance Pt and PtRu catalysts, supported on multiwalled carbon nanotubes (CNTs), were prepared by a high pressure organic colloid method. The particle sizes of the active components were as small as 1.2 nm for Pt and 1.1 nm for PtRu, and the active Pt surface areas were 295 and 395 m 2 /g, respectively. The catalysts showed very high activities toward the anodic oxidation of methanol, evaluated by cyclic voltammetry, being up to 4 times higher than that of commercial Johnson Matthey Hispec 2000 Pt/XC-72R and 5 times better than Hispec 5000 PtRu/XC-72R catalysts. In a full air/hydrogen fuel cell, a membrane-electrode assembly prepared using our Pt/CNT and PtRu/CNT catalysts showed 50% and 100% higher performances than those prepared with commercial Johnson Matthey Pt/XC-72R and PtRu/XC-72R catalysts for the same Pt loading and operating conditions. direct methanol fuel cell, hydrogen fuel cells, anodes, catalysts, methanol oxidation, carbon nanotubes, organic colloidal method Citation:Wu Y N, Liao S J, Wang K N, et al. High pressure organic colloid method for the preparation of high performance carbon nanotube-supported Pt and PtRu catalysts for fuel cell applications.

Structural Analysis of Platinum Nanoparticles on Carbon Nanotube Surface as Electrocatalyst System

“…Some ways have been developed lately to be able to increase the activity of the catalyst. Utilization of carbon nanotube (CNT) as catalyst support is alternative way to increase the activity of Pt and reduce the use of Pt in fuel cells (Wu et al, 2010;Aouissi et al, 2014;Valenzuela-Mu~niz et al, 2014;Shi et al, 2014) whereas CNT iscommonly-adopted materials providing the highest activity for electrode reactions and lifetime stability.It has been proven that the use of CNTs as the support of Pt catalysts can increase the oxygen reduction reaction (ORR) activity than carbon black (Rao & Viswanathan, 2010;Wan et al, 2015;Rao & Ishikawa, 2012). However, CNTs are inert materials that are difficult to disperse in solution due to high Van der Waals energy.…”

Synthesis of Platinum Nanoparticles from K2PtCl4 Solution Using Bacterial Cellulose Matrix

“…This method is done by reducing the precursor solution with a reducing agent. The precursors that are most often used as a source of Pt particles are H 2 PtCl 6 and the reducing agents, that are also commonly used, are formaldehyde [13], Lithium triethylborohydride [14], sodium borohydride [15], and ethylene glycol [16]. Yang et al [17] have synthesized Pt nanoparticles from Pt (IV) solution, namely, H 2 PtCl 6 , into BC matrix using sodium borohydride and a formaldehyde reductant.…”