Cathodic oxygen reduction reaction (ORR) is the rate-limiting reaction step of low-temperature fuel cells such as proton-exchange membrane (PEMFC) and direct methanol fuel cells (DMFC). Platinum (Pt) has been the standard for high activity oxygen reduction catalysts for over a century. However, Pt catalysts suffer from the crucial disadvantages of high cost, large overpotential loss, and limited long-term reliability, which have hindered their immediate adoption in the tremendous commercial fuel cell market. Here, we have adopted carbon nanotubes as a support or catalyst for the oxygen reduction electrode of PEMFC. The cyclic and the rotating disk electrode (RDE) voltammograms confirmed the outstanding ORR properties of the carbon nanotube based electrodes. The fabrication processes of the efficient, bio-mimetic, rigid, electron-conducting carbon nanotube catalysts can have a significant impact on the wide deployment of the current PEMFC technology.

Carbon nanotube as a durable oxygen reduction electrode for proton exchange membrane fuel cell

256th National Meeting (2018)

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