Investigating the single-step solution combustion method for synthesis of oxide supported/unsupported Pt/PtOx, as cathode electrocatalysts for PEMFCs

The current PEMFC research status indicates that it will be playing a very crucial role in imminent revolutions in automotive and renewable-energy industries. However, the remaining issue of electrocatalyst cost in PEMFC continues. Nano-sized platinum particles dispersed on high surface area carbon substrates have been used as the electrocatalyst for both the anode and the cathode. However, the sluggish oxygen reduction reaction (ORR) causes a large overpotential at the low operating temperature leading to degradation of carbon support at cathode which propagates to the failure of PEMFCs. Therefore, for a considerable reduction in the capital cost as well as improved durability of supported Pt electrocatalysts, we investigate a synthesis route which can lead to a composite of porous oxide support and Pt/PtOx nanostructures, in line with ref. [1]. In this paper, we investigate the wet chemical route which enabled mixing of Pt and support precursors intimately and upon thermal treatment (Fig. 1), resulted in the nanocomposite. Initial investigation exhibits an excellent dispersion of Pt over support in as-synthesized form (Fig. 2). The detailed discussion on further synthesis-optimization and resulting product’s characterization will be presented at the conference.

[1] M.G. Chourashiya and A. Urakawa, J. Mater. Chem. A 5, 4774 (2017).