Carbon supported Cu-Pd nanoparticles as anode catalyst for direct borohydride-hydrogen peroxide fuel cells

Abstract

Carbon supported Cu-Pd bimetallic nanoparticles were prepared by a successive reduction method in aqueous solution and used as anode electrocatalyst for direct borohydride-hydrogen peroxide fuel cell (DBHFC). The physical and electrochemical properties of the as-prepared electrocatalysts are investigated by transmission electron microscopy (TEM), X-ray diffraction (XRD), cyclic voltammetry (CV), chronopotentiometry (CP), linear sweep voltammetry (LSV) and fuel cell test. The results show that the size of the crystallite is around 12.5nm, the Cu1Pd1/C catalyst presents the highest catalytic activity among all the resultant catalysts, and the DBHFC using Cu1Pd1/C as anode catalyst and Pt mesh (1cm×1cm) as cathode electrode obtains the maximum power density as high as 39.8 mW cm-2 at a discharge current density of 80.1mA cm-2 at 20°C.