Abstract
Recently, polymer electrolyte fuel cells (PEFCs) are attracting a lot of attention owing to their small size and relatively low working temperature (below 80 °C), which enables their usage in automobiles and household power generation. However, PEFCs have a problem with decreased output caused by corrosion of amorphous carbon, which is commonly used as a catalytic carrier. This problem could be solved by the usage of carbon nanostructures with a stronger crystal structure than amorphous carbon. In this work, nanographene supported by Pt nanoparticles was synthesized and examined for possible applications in the development of PEFCs with increased durability. Nanographene was synthesized by in-liquid plasma generated in ethanol using alternating current (AC) high voltage. A membrane electrode assembly (MEA) was constructed, where Pt nanoparticle-supported nanographene was used as the catalytic layer. Power generation characteristics of the MEA were evaluated and current density for the developed MEA was found to be approximately 240 mA/cm2. From the electrochemical evaluation, it was found that the durability of Pt nanoparticle-supported nanographene was about seven times higher than that of carbon black.
Highlights
Ecological problems such as global warming and the depletion of fossil fuels have received a lot of attention
Polymer electrolyte fuel cells (PEFCs) are attracting a lot of attention owing to their small size and relatively low working temperature, which enables their usage in automobiles and household power generation [3,4,5,6]
Nanographene with reduced amount of amorphous component after H2 O2 treatment looks promising for use as a catalyst support material in polymer electrolyte fuel cells (PEFCs)
Summary
Ecological problems such as global warming and the depletion of fossil fuels have received a lot of attention. In contrast to commonly used fossil fuels, fuel cells could generate power with hydrogen and oxygen, and emit only water without greenhouse gases [3]. Polymer electrolyte fuel cells (PEFCs) are attracting a lot of attention owing to their small size and relatively low working temperature (below 80 ◦ C), which enables their usage in automobiles and household power generation [3,4,5,6]. A key characteristic of Pt NPs for power generation is an effective electrochemical surface area (ESA), which is defined as the ratio of the surface to volume of the Pt catalyst [1,7,8].
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