In situ Deposition of Pt Catalyst Layers on Gas Diffusion Electrodes for Proton Exchange Membrane Fuel Cells

0573735 - ÚT 2024 RIV CZ eng A - Abstrakt
Garapati, Meenakshi Seshadhri - Němec, Tomáš - Shapko, Dmytro
In situ Deposition of Pt Catalyst Layers on Gas Diffusion Electrodes for Proton Exchange Membrane Fuel Cells.
Hydrogen Days 2023 : 13th International Conference on Hydrogen technologies. Praha: The Czech Hydrogen Technology Platform HYTEP, 2023 - (Stehlík, K.). s. 38-38. ISBN 978-80-907264-4-4.
[Hydrogen Days 2023 International Conference on Hydrogen technologies /13/. 29.03.2023-31.03.2023, Praha]
Grant CEP: GA TA ČR(CZ) TM01000018
Institucionální podpora: RVO:61388998
Klíčová slova: proton exchange membrane fuel cells * oxygen reduction reaction * membrane electrode assembly * catalyst nanoparticles * spark-discharge generator
Obor OECD: Nano-processes (applications on nano-scale)

Herein, the present work focuses on the direct deposition of Pt catalyst nanoparticles on gas-diffusion electrodes (GDE) and use as the electrodes of the membrane electrode assembly (MEA) for low-temperature proton exchange membrane fuel cells (PEMFC) without any additional treatments. This in situ deposition of catalyst nanoparticles does not involve any chemicals or solvents that can damage the Nafion membrane. Pt nanoparticles have been synthesized by spark-discharge generator (SDG), a gas-phase atmospheric-pressure synthesis process. SDG produced nanoparticles were deposited by filtration on standard GDE (SIGRACET® 36 BB) placed at the outlet. By variation of the carrier gas (N2 and forming gas (FG, N2 95 % + H2 5%) in the SDG, two kinds of Pt nanoparticles (Pt-N2 and Pt-FG) were obtained. At first, the oxygen reduction reaction (ORR) activity and durability of both nanoparticle samples were examined by the half-cell measurements, i.e., cyclic voltammetry, rotating-disk electrode, and accelerated durability tests. For MEA fabrication, in situ deposited Pt-N2 and FG catalysts on GDE (Pt loading 0.2 mg cm-2) are used as the anode and cathode. In the single-cell studies, MEA with Pt-FG catalyst delivers a power density of 644 mW cm-2 at 60 ⁰C and RH75%, which is higher than the Pt-N2 (500 mW cm-2) and commercial Pt-black (320 mW cm-2) catalysts. The performance of Pt-FG catalyst can be attributed to higher crystallinity and smaller particle size evaluated from X-ray diffraction and transmission electron microscopy measurements. Hence, the SDG technique can produce high-quality and in situ deposited PEMFC electrodes.
Trvalý link: https://hdl.handle.net/11104/0349345