Proton exchange membrane (PEM) fuel cells are a promising technology for electrochemical energy conversion, however the cost effectiveness of PEM fuel cells has hindered widespread use. A major contributing factor to high cost is the utilization of the precious metal platinum as an electrocatalyst, which accounts for ~ 30–40% of the cost of the fuel cell membrane electrode assembly. To approach this problem we have developed a method to produce efficient, low Pt loading catalyst layers in PEM fuel cell electrodes via pulse potential deposition (PPD) from a H2Pt(OH)6 plating solution. We show that by optimizing the PPD parameters, it is possible to directly deposit very small Pt nanoparticles with narrow size distribution (1.36 ± 0.360 nm) onto amorphous carbon supports. Electrodes deposited with these high surface area electrocatalysts display increased fuel cell performance compared to commercial ETEK electrodes, but have an order of magnitude less Pt. The improved performance of our electrodes is attributed to a combination of the optimized size of the deposited nanoparticles as well as the decreased thickness of the catalyst layer. In our deposited electrodes the catalyst layers are very thin (&lt; 10 μm) and as a result achieve gravimetric power over twelve times that of commercial ETEK electrodes.

Efficient electrocatalysts prepared by pulse electrochemical deposition for PEM fuel cells

251st National Meeting (2016)

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