Studies of electrochemical performance of carbon supported Pt–Cu nanoparticles as anode catalysts for direct borohydride–hydrogen peroxide fuel cell

Abstract

Carbon supported Pt–Cu bimetallic nanoparticles are prepared by a modified NaBH 4 reduction method in aqueous solution and used as the anode electrocatalyst of 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), chronoamperometry (CA), chronopotentiometry (CP) and fuel cell test. The results show that the carbon supported Pt–Cu bimetallic catalysts have much higher catalytic activity for the direct oxidation of BH 4 − than the carbon supported pure nanosized Pt catalyst, especially the Pt 50Cu 50/C catalyst presents the highest catalytic activity among all as-prepared catalysts, and the DBHFC using Pt 50Cu 50/C as anode electrocatalyst and Pt/C as cathode electrocatalyst shows as high as 71.6 mW cm −2 power density at a discharge current density of 54.7 mA cm −2 at 25 °C.