A growing global population, the technological advances being made, and the greater push towards greener energy bring a great need for alternative sources of energy. In order to keep up with ever increasing demands for energy, direct formic acid fuel cells (DFAFCs) show great promise. However, the need for a cost effective, robust and efficient anodic catalyst towards DFAFCs is still imminent. Therefore, this study aims to investigate the efficiency, conductivity, and stability of palladium and cobalt binary nanocomposites on multiwalled carbon nanotubes (MWCNTs) substrate. Three nanocomposites were synthesized with varying amounts of cobalt (0%, 10% and 15%) and a fixed amount of palladium (20%) on MWCNTs using a simple one pot synthesis utilizing sodium borohydride as a reducing agent. This allowed the palladium and cobalt nanoparticles to disperse along the carbon nanotube surface to provide greater catalytic surface area. The morphology was characterized by scanning electron microscopy (SEM) imaging technique showing the binary nanocomposites were dispersed along the carbon nanotube surface. Cyclic voltammetry (CV) was then employed for the electrochemical characterization of formic acid oxidation (FAO) using the nanocomposites in a 0.50 M HCOOH with 0.10 M H2SO4 electrolyte. A glassy carbon working electrode (GCE) was modified with a fixed amount of the nanocomposites (0.025 mg/cm2 GCE) to enable correct comparisons of the catalytic effect of various amounts of cobalt. The nanocomposites have demonstrated the direct formic acid oxidation pathway facilitated by a bifunctional effect. This along with all other electrochemical data was compared to a standard commercially available 20% palladium on carbon Pearlman catalyst.

Synthesis and electrochemical characterization of PdCo/MWCNT towards formic acid fuel cells

2019 Fall National Meeting

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