DEVELOPMENT OF NOVEL ELECTROCATALYSTS FOR PROTON EXCHANGE MEMBRANE FUEL CELLS

Ilias, Shamsuddin

North Carolina Agricultural and Technical State University

关键词: Electrocatalysts;    Current Density;    Proton Exchange Membrane Fuel Cells;    Anodes;    Air;   

DOI  :  10.2172/825377
RP-ID  :  NONE
RP-ID  :  FG26-98FT40146
RP-ID  :  825377

美国|英语

来源: UNT Digital Library

【 摘 要 】

Proton Exchange Membrane Fuel Cell (PEMFC) is one of the most promising power sources for space and electric vehicle applications. Platinum (Pt) catalyst is used for both fuel and air electrodes in PEMFCs. The carbon monoxide (CO) contamination of H{sub 2} greatly affects electrocatalysts used at the anode of PEMFCs and decrease the cell performance. This irreversible poisoning of the anode can happen even in CO concentrations as low as few ppm, and therefore, require expensive scrubbing of the H{sub 2}-fuel to reduce the contaminant concentration to acceptable level. In order to commercialize this environmentally sound source of energy/power system, development of suitable CO-tolerant catalyst is needed. In this work, we have synthesized several novel electrocatalysts (Pt/C, Pt/Ru/C Pt/Mo/C, Pt/Ir and Pt/Ru/Mo) for PEMFCs. These catalysts have been tested for CO tolerance in the H{sub 2}/air fuel cell. The concentration of CO in the H{sub 2} fuel varied from 10 ppm to 100 ppm. The performance of the electrodes was evaluated by determining the cell potential against current density. The effect of temperature, catalyst compositions, and electrode film preparation methods on the performance of PEM fuel cell has also been studied. It was found that at 70 C and 3.5 atm pressure at the cathode, Pt-alloy catalysts (10 wt % Pt/Ru/C, 20 wt % Pt/Mo/C) were more CO-tolerant than 20 wt % Pt catalyst alone. It was also observed that spraying method is better for the preparation of electrode film than the brushing technique. Some of these results are summarized in this report.