Preparation And Performance Of Platinum Alloy Catalyst For Proton Exchange Membrane Fuel Cells

Proton exchange membrane fuel cell (PEMFC) is widely used for transportation and portable power sources, as it has prominent merits such as high efficiency, cleanness and et al. Nowadays, the catalyst of PEMC is still used of Pt catalyst which has high catalytic activity for the oxygen reduction reaction. Hower, the single Pt catalyst is easily posioned as the fuel is gas mixture. Thus, reducing the amount of Pt and improving the anti-poisoning ability of Pt catalysts have great significance for the commercialization of PEMFC.In this paper, the PtRu/C catalyst was prepared with the reverse micells method, and a new kind of reverse micells system had been investigated. As a result, the electrochemical performances of PtRu/C catalyst prepared with the new reverse micells system are improved.The SDS/Butanol/Heptane as the reverse micells system was used to prepare the PtRu/C catalysts with a metal loading of 20 wt% or 30 wt%. The influence of surfactant concentrations, mole-ratio of water to surfactant and ultrasonic power value on the performance of prepared catalysts was studied. The analytical methods of EDS, XRD, TEM and Cyclic voltammetry were used to recognize the characteristic of the particle size, crystal structure, and the electrocatalystic performance of PtRu/C. The result showed that the catalyst had a higher dispersion and the particle's diameter was about 3 nm under the conditions of the surfactant concentration of 0.2,ωvalue of 12 and ultrasonic power value of 225W. We also prepared 30wt% PtRu/C catalyst for comparing with commercial 30 wt% PtRu/C catalyst from Johnson Matthey Company, and the two catalysts's particles have the similiar diameter, and the catalysts's electrochemical performance and tolerance to CO were quite familiar.The PtRuFe/C catalysts with a loading of 30wt% PtRu were prepared with the reverse micells method. As a result, the particle's dispersiton and the electrochemical performance of the catalysts are improved because of the presence of Fe atoms. The catalyst showed the highest electrochemical performance as the loading of Fe was 4 wt%. The novel binary catalysts with 20wt% of metal loading of Pt3Te/C, PtEu/C and PtEe/C were prepared. Cyclic voltammetry testing showed that the electrochemical performance of the catalysts were followed by Pt3Te/C > PtCe/C > PtEu/C catalysts, and the tolerance to CO were followed by PtRu / C > Pt3Te / C > PtCe / C > PtEu / C.In addition, the microwave assisted glycol reduction method was also used to prepare 30 wt% PtRu/C catalyst. The result showed that the dispersion of the catalyst was highly improved compared with the catalyst prepared by reverse micells method.