Performance and stability characteristics of MEAs with carbon-supported Pt and Pt1Ni1 nanoparticles as cathode catalysts in PEM fuel cell

✍ Scribed by Yong-Hun Cho; Tae-Yeol Jeon; Ju Wan Lim; Yoon-Hwan Cho; Minjeh Ahnb; Namgee Jung; Sung Jong Yoo; Won-Sub Yoon; Yung-Eun Sung

• Publisher: Elsevier Science
• Year: 2011
• Tongue: English
• Weight: 943 KB
• Volume: 36
• Category: Article
• ISSN: 0360-3199
• DOI: 10.1016/j.ijhydene.2010.12.084

✦ Synopsis

Polarization curves of membrane electrode assemblies (MEAs) containing carbon-supported platinum (Pt/C) and platinumenickel alloy (Pt 1 Ni 1 /C) as cathode catalysts were obtained for durability test as a function of time over 1100 h at constant current. Charge transfer resistance was measured using electrochemical impedance spectroscopy and postmortem analysis such as X-ray diffraction and high-resolution transmission electron microscopy was conducted in order to elucidate the degradation factors of each MEA. Our results demonstrate that the reduced performance of MEAs containing Pt 1 Ni 1 /C as a cathode catalyst was due to decreased oxygen reduction reaction caused by the corrosion of Ni, whereas that of MEAs containing Pt/C was because of reduced electrochemical surface area induced by increased Pt particle size.