Abstract
SnO2 doped with Sb and Nb has been investigated for its use as catalyst support materials replacing carbon to enhance PEM fuel cells stability. Nanostructured powders of various doping levels were prepared by flame spray pyrolysis (FSP). The specific requirements of surface area >50 m2g−1 and electronic conductivity >0.01 Scm−1 were obtained, and pore sizes ranging mainly from 10 to 100 nm. Pt particles (9–20 wt.% in loading targeted) of ~1 nm well dispersed in Sb-doped SnO2 was prepared by a one-step FSP procedure providing microstructures of high interest for further investigations as cathode in PEM fuel cells.
Highlights
Nanostructured materials are gaining widespread use, requiring new approaches to powder synthesis with respect to increased production while maintaining proper safety procedures and requested material properties
EXPERIMENTAL Nanostructured tin-based oxide powders for use as cathode catalyst support materials in PEM fuel cells (PEMFCs) were synthesized by Flame spray pyrolysis (FSP) using procedures similar to those reported in the literature [7, 8, 12]
It is evident that the surface area increases with the doping level for both dopants and synthesis procedures, the effect is less severe for the powders prepared by FSP
Summary
Nanostructured materials are gaining widespread use, requiring new approaches to powder synthesis with respect to increased production while maintaining proper safety procedures and requested material properties. In the present work FSP is applied to produce and investigate properties of tin-based oxide materials to be used as cathode catalyst support in PEMFCs, offering high electrochemical stability and corrosion resistance for this application as compared to carbon [4,5,6]. SnO2-based materials synthesized by FSP are already reported in the literature for gas sensor applications [710], FSP is to our knowledge not applied for supported catalyst particles for PEMFCs. SnO2 is a semiconductor, and in this work we elaborate on using antimony and niobium as dopants (Sn1-xMxO2±G, x=0.00-0.15, M=Sb/Nb).
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