Application of amorphous materials for fuel cells

Abstract

The search for new anode materials of amorphous nature for methanol fuel cells is one of the aims of this work. The main problem that fuel cells present is related to the catalytic material and its distribution in a suitable matrix. Amorphous alloys are particularly attractive materials as catalyst supports because of their high conductivity, high corrosion resistance in sulphuric acid, as well as the possibility of a good distribution of the electrocatalytic particles, mainly platinum and platinum–tin, on a conducting matrix. In this work, an amorphous Ni–Nb matrix has been alloyed with different atomic percentages of Pt and Sn. The catalytic activity was tested for the electrochemical oxidation of methanol and methanol–formaldehyde at high concentrations (1 M). It has been observed that the substitution of a portion of platinum by tin enhanced the catalytic activity. The results show that NiNbPt and NiNbPtSn amorphous alloys are excellent anode materials for their application in fuel cells, since they show a higher catalytic activity as well as a bigger lifetime than that of polycrystalline platinum.