Synthesis and physical/electrochemical characterization of Pt/C nanocatalyst for polymer electrolyte fuel cells

Abstract

In the present study, 20 wt.% Pt/C nanocatalyst has been synthesized by the simple formic acid reduction method (FARM) in the organic solvent tetrahyrofuran (THF). Transmission electron microscope (TEM) and X-ray diffraction (XRD) analyses indicate the formation of well-dispersed Pt nanoparticles having sizes of around 3–4 nm on the Vulcan XC-72 carbon support. A comparison between two different synthetic approaches by using the FARM shows that the formation and dispersion of the Pt nanoparticles can be facilitated by the THF solvent and high surface area Vulcan XC-72 carbon support. The surface characterization of the Pt/C by X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) reveals that 60.3% of Pt is present in its metallic state. Furthermore, the electrochemical characterization by the cyclic voltammetry (CV) demonstrates that the electrochemical active surface (EAS) area and methanol oxidation reaction of the Pt/C is respectively almost similar and slightly higher than that of the 20 wt.% Pt/C E-TEK catalyst.