Preparation of Pt/G and PtNi/G nanocatalysts with high electrocatalytic activity for borohydride oxidation and investigation of different operation condition on the performance of direct borohydride-hydrogen peroxide fuel cell

Abstract

In this work, graphene supported Pt (Pt/G) and NiPt nanoparticles (NiPt/G) were synthesized by in situ chemical reduction of graphene oxide, Ni+2 and Pt+4 ions. The structural investigation was performed by Fourier transform infrared (FT-IR) spectra, X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS), Brunauer, Emmett, and Teller (BET) analysis, Field emission scanning electron microscopy (FE-SEM), Energy-dispersive X-ray spectroscopy (EDX) and X-ray diffraction (XRD). The electrocatalytic activity of the Pt/G and PtNi/G catalysts toward BH4− oxidation in alkaline media was investigated by means of cyclic voltammetry (CV) and chronoamperometry (CA). The results showed that the catalytic activity of the PtNi/G catalyst toward NaBH4 electrooxidation was higher than that of Pt/G because of the synergistic effect between Pt and Ni. A direct borohydride-hydrogen peroxide fuel cell (DBHPFC) was fabricated using Pt/G (0.5 mg cm−2) as cathode catalyst and NiPt/G as anode catalyst. The maximum power density was 64.9 mW cm−2 at 60 °C, 1 M NaBH4 and 2 M H2O2 for anodic loading of 2 mg cm−2 and 60.4 mW cm−2 at 60 °C, 1 M NaBH4 and 2 M H2O2 for anodic loading of 1mg cm−2.