Intermittent Microwave Heating-assisted Synthesis Of Composite WC-Graphene And TiN-Graphene And Their Superior Electrocatalytic Properties As The Supporting Materials Of Pt Catalyst

Proton Exchange Membrane Fuel Cell (PEMFC) has been widely concerned in recent years for its high energy conversion efficiency, low running noise and high reliability. However, the high cost and short life-time restrict its commercialization. The catalyst is an important factor that influences the fuel cell performance. In the long harsh operating conditions, carbon black is easy to be corroded, resulting in Pt migration, aggregation etc. It should be mentioned that doping some nanoparticles in the carrier can improve the Pt binding force between the particles and the carrier, thereby improving the stability of the catalyst. In this paper, intermittent microwave method was been used to prepare of WC-Graphene (WC-G) and TiN-Graphene (TiN-G) composite materials. The characterization and electrochemical performance of Pt/WC-G and Pt/TiN-G electrocatalysts were conducted.With the similar catalytic properties as Pt, WC is known as "Pt-like catalyst" Moreover, because of the high conductivity, high stability and the strong interaction between metal, WC is used as the supporting material for fuel cell catalysts. WC-G was been successfully synthesized by intermittent microwave method. The XRD results indicate that the pure WC presented as hexagonal phase. The pure WC was produced with the average particle size of5nm at the procedure of15-on and15-off for40times. The activities of Pt/WC-G for the electrochemical oxidation of methanol are compared with Pt/G in the acid solution by the cyclic voltammetry and CO-stripping. It can be seen that Pt/WC-G gave the better performance than that of Pt/G.Moreover, the paper extends application of intermittent microwave method to the synthesis of TiN-G using titanium(IV) bis(ammonium lactate) dihydroxide (TALH) and graphene as precursors. The XRD results indicate that TiN was successfully synthesized. Electrochemical test results show that the modification of TiN is beneficial to improve the activity and stability of Pt/G electrocatalyst.