Journal
APPLIED CATALYSIS B-ENVIRONMENTAL
Volume 198, Issue -, Pages 32-37Publisher
ELSEVIER SCIENCE BV
DOI: 10.1016/j.apcatb.2016.05.038
Keywords
Fuel cells; Oxygen reduction reaction; Non-precious catalysts; Pore size distribution; Membrane-electrode assembly
Funding
- U.S. Department of Energy (EERE) [EE 0000459]
Ask authors/readers for more resources
With extensive development over the past ten years, non-precious metal (NPM) catalysts have become promising alternatives to platinum catalysts in fuel cell cathodes, but have been challenged by severe transport limitations. Hard template synthesis, also called the sacrificial support method, promises to improve transport properties introducing a sacrificial template to form mesopores. To further understand hard template transport properties, the relationship between template morphology, resulting catalyst pore structure, and overall fuel cell performance was investigated. Porous carbon materials and catalysts were synthesized using four different silica templates. Nitrogen physisorption and scanning electron microscopy were used to characterize pore diameter and morphology. The catalysts displayed pores approximately half the diameter of the template particles, and a geometric model is proposed to describe pore collapse. Catalyst electrochemical performance was characterized in membrane electrode assemblies using the hard templated materials in gas-diffusion electrodes for oxygen reduction. An optimum pore diameter was observed at approximately 9 nm. (C) 2016 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.
Authors
I am an author on this paper
Click your name to claim this paper and add it to your profile.
Reviews
Recommended
No Data Available