Paper EN-TuP8
GLAD & SAD-GLAD Nanorod Array Catalyst Electrodes for Polymer Electrolyte Membrane Fuel Cells
Tuesday, November 11, 2014, 6:30 pm, Room Hall D
| Session: |
Energy Frontiers Poster Session |
| Presenter: |
Fatma Yurtsever, University of Arkansas at Little Rock |
| Authors: |
F.M. Yurtsever, University of Arkansas at Little Rock
M. Begum, University of Arkansas at Little Rock
M. Yurukcu, University of Arkansas at Little Rock
M.F. Cansizoglu, University of Arkansas at Little Rock
A.U. Shaikh, University of Arkansas at Little Rock
W.J. Khudhayer, University of Babylon, Iraq
N. Kariuki, Argonne National Laboratory
D.J. Myers, Argonne National Laboratory
T. Karabacak, University of Arkansas at Little Rock
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| Correspondent: |
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Polymer electrolyte membrane (PEM) fuel cell technology is one of the promising alternative
energy systems for an environmentally friendly, sustainable energy economy. However, PEM
fuel cells require an expensive platinum catalyst which raises the cost of the fuel cell. In this
study we investigated the electrocatalytic oxygen reductive reaction (ORR) activities of Pt and
Pt-Ni alloy catalyst thin film coated on Cr and Ni base nanorod arrays, respectively, and also
ORR of Pt-Ni alloy nanorods. Cr and Ni nanorods were used as low cost, high surface area
metallic supports for the conformal Pt and Pt-Ni allow thin film, respectively. Nanorods were
grown on glassy carbon electrodes using a magnetron sputtering glancing angle deposition
(GLAD) technique and conformal coating of catalyst thin film on the base nanorods were
achieved using a small angle deposition (SAD) technique. Pt-Ni alloy nanorods were also grown
using GLAD. The electrocatalytic ORR activity of the nanostructured electrodes were
investigated using cyclic voltammetry (CV) and rotating disk electrodes (RDE) in a 0.1M
aqueous perchloric (HClO4) acid solution. The electrochemical active surface area (ECSA),
surface area specific activity (SA), and mass activity (MA) values were determined and
compared to the Pt and Pt-Ni alloy catalyst results in the literature. The results from GLAD Pt-Ni
alloy nanorods exhibit higher values of ECSA compared to geometric area of the nanorods. The
MA of the Pt-Ni nanorods was found to be a factor of 2.3 to 3.5 higher than that of pure Pt
nanorods of the same dimensions and increasing with increasing Ni contents. However, the SA
enhancement was only observed for the nanorods with the highest Pt contents. In addition, both
the SAD-Pt/GLAD-Cr and GLAD-Pt-Ni alloy nanorods were found to have higher stability
against loss of ECA during potential cycling in the acidic electrolyte. Our preliminary results on
the SAD-Pt-Ni/GLAD-Ni nanorod arrays will also presented