Electrocatalytic Activity and CO Tolerance Properties of Mesostructured Pt/WO3 Composite as an Anode Catalyst for PEMFCs

A mesostructured Pt/WO3 electrochemical catalyst has been prepared by a loading small amount of Pt (7.5 wt %) on mesoporous tungsten oxide, which was synthesized by a simple one-step casting method using mesoporous silica (KIT-6) as a hard template. The resultant mesostructured Pt/WO3 catalyst showed high electrocatalytic activity for hydrogen electrooxidation, and the mass activity (mA center dot mg-Pt-1, per mass of Pt) of it for hydrogen electrooxidation was more than three times of that of the commercial 20 wt % Ph/C catalyst (E-TEK). In addition, it exhibited much improved resistance to CO poisoning relative to the 20 wt % Pt/C catalyst. Since the catalyst is also stable in an electrochemical environment, it could serve as an alternative electrocatalyst for proton exchange membrane fuel cells with high electrocatalytic activity and CO tolerance.