Preparation Of The Methanol Fuel Cell Electrode Catalytic Materials

Fuel cells have wide applications in military or civilian fields due to the advantages of environmentally benign, low noise and ease of use. However, fuel cells have not yet come into commercialization on large scale for the reasons of low activities of electrocatalysts and the high manufacturing costs. The activity of the electrocatalyst has a lot to do with the the catalyst support, so it’s a feasible way to resolve this problem to look for a new catalyst support with perfect performance.In this paper, we have done the following works on the preparation of electrocatalyst based on the previous studies. First, mesoporous carbon/graphene composite (MCGC) were prepared by taking graphene oxide (GO), phenol, formaldehyde and F127as raw materials through hydrothermal treatment and carbonization. The influencing factors on the structural property, including the mass content of phenol, formaldehyde and F127, had been discussed. New mesoporous carbon/graphene composite (NMCGC) was prepared through solvent evaporation induced self-assembly method (EISA) by taking resole and PI23as raw materials. Both MCGC and NMCGC were characterized by nitrogen adsorption measurements, X-ray diffraction (XRD), transmission electron microscopy (TEM). scanning electron microscopy (SEM), ect. The results demonstrated that the two kinds of materials showed large surface area and pore volume, and interconnected pore structures for MCGC. In the end, MCGC, NMCGC and Vulcan XC-72were used as support to prepare catalysts Pt/MCGC, Pt/XC-72. PtRu/NMCGC and PtRu/XC-72. respectively. These catalysts were characterised with energy disperse spectroscopy (EDS). TEM and XRD. And the electrochemical activity of these catalysts towards methanol were tested in a electrochemical workstation. The results showed that, compared to the Pt/XC-72, the Pt/MCGC presented a larger electrochemically active surface area (ECSA). higher oxidation activities towards methanol and better anti-corrosion abilities. PtRu/NMCGC showed a similar activitiy in catalytic oxidation of methanol to PtRu/XC-72.