Composite materials An emerging class of fuel cell catalyst supports

Highly dispersed platinum or platinum-based catalysts on a conductive support are commonly used as electrode materials in low-temperature fuel cells The performance and in particular the stability of these catalysts strongly depend on the characteristics of the support Being the use of plain carbon ceramic or polymer materials not completely satisfactory in the last years hybrid polymer-carbon ceramic-carbon and polymer-ceramic materials have been proposed as fuel cell catalyst supports These hybrid materials possessing the properties of each component or even with a synergistic effect would present improved characteristics with respect to the bare components In this paper we present an overview of these hybrid materials as low-temperature fuel cell catalyst supports The improved characteristics of the mixed supports with respect to the individual component and their effect on the electrochemical activity are highlighted (C) 2010 Elsevier B V All rights reserved