Investigation of carbon-supported Pt nanocatalyst preparation by the polyol process for fuel cell applications

• Published in: Electrochimica acta 2007-09, Vol.52 (25), p.7278-7285
• Main Authors: Oh, Hyung-Suk, Oh, Jong-Gil, Hong, Youn-Gi, Kim, Hansung
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Applied sciences; Energy; Energy. Thermal use of fuels; Equipments for energy generation and conversion: thermal, electrical, mechanical energy, etc; Ethylene glycol; Exact sciences and technology; Fuel cells; PEM fuel cells; Polyol process; Zeta potential
• ISSN: 0013-4686; 1873-3859
• DOI: 10.1016/j.electacta.2007.05.080

Parametric investigation of the polyol process for the preparation of carbon-supported Pt nanoparticles as catalysts for fuel cells was carried out. It was found that the concentration of glycolate anion, which is a function of pH, plays an important role in controlling Pt particle size and loading on carbon. It was observed that Pt loading decreased with increasing alkalinity of the solution. As evidenced by zeta potential measurement, this was mainly due to poor adsorption or repulsive forces between the metal colloids and the supports. In order to modify the conventional polyol process, the effect of the gas purging conditions on the characteristics of Pt/C was examined. By the optimization of the gas environment during the reaction, it was possible to obtain high loading of 39.5 wt% with a 2.8 nm size of Pt particle. From the single cell test, it was found that operating in ambient O 2 at 70 °C can deliver high performance of more than 0.6 V at 1.44 A cm −2.