Integrated high-efficiency Pt/carbon nanotube arrays for PEM fuel cells

Authors

Jun Chen, University of WollongongFollow
Joselito M. Razal, University of WollongongFollow
Gordon G. Wallace, University of WollongongFollow
Andrew I. Minett, The University Of SydneyFollow
Jie Zhao, University of WollongongFollow
Mei Gao, Division of Materials Science and Engineering, CSIRO
Anthony C. Romeo, University of WollongongFollow
Weimin Zhang, University of WollongongFollow

RIS ID

40672

Publication Details

Zhang, W., Minett, A. I., Gao, M., Zhao, J., Razal, J. M., Wallace, G. G., Romeo, T. and Chen, J. (2011). Integrated high-efficiency Pt/carbon nanotube arrays for PEM fuel cells. Advanced Energy Materials, 1 (4), 671-677.

Abstract

"A facile strategy to deposit Pt nanoparticles with various metal-loading densities on vertically aligned carbon nanotube (ACNT) arrays as electrocatalysts for proton exchange membrane (PEM) fuel cells is described. The deposition is achieved by electrostatic adsorption of the Pt precursor on the positively charged polyelectrolyte functionalized ACNT arrays and subsequent reduction by L-ascorbic acid. The application of the aligned electrocatalysts in fuel cells is realized by transferring from a quartz substrate to nafion membrane using a hot-press procedure to fabricate the membrane electrode assembly (MEA). It is shown that the MEA with vertically aligned structured electrocatalysts provides better Pt utilization than that with Pt on conventional carbon nanotubes or carbon black, resulting in higher fuel cell performance."

Grant Number

ARC/DP0877348, ARC/FF0669110, ARC/DP0987503

Additional Grant Number

http://purl.org/au-research/grants/ARC/DP0877348

http://purl.org/au-research/grants/ARC/FF0669110

http://purl.org/au-research/grants/ARC/DP0987503