Preparation of Platinum Catalyst on Silver Membranes for PEMFC with Green Electroless Deposition

Abstract

As an alternative to platinum on carbon electrocatalysts for polymer electrolyte fuel cells, we have deposited platinum on silver membranes using electroless reduction of platinum salts with isopropanol. To speed discovery and optimization of the electroless chemistry, we developed two visual screening experiments to identify which formulations deposited active platinum catalysts. Once an environmentally friendly or green formulation was identified, we optimized the chemistry looking at catalyst activity and morphology as a function of temperature and reactant concentrations.