The oxygen reduction reaction on Pt/TiOxNy-based electrocatalyst for PEM fuel cell applications

Titanium oxy-nitride was developed for the first time as Pt electrocatalyst support for the ORR in PEM fuel applications. The conditions of the support preparation and the Pt/TiOxNy-based electrodes' elaboration by chemical reduction method were determined. Comparison of the polarization curves of the carbon and the TiOxNy supported how clearly TiOxNy was more stable than the Vulcan XC-72R. It was found that the 40 wt% Pt/TiOxNy-based electrocatalyst is active for the ORR in acid medium, but the activity was less than that of Pt/C. The normalized electrochemical surface area degradation of Pt/TiOxNy was significantly less than that of Pt/C. The kinetics of the ORR on Pt/TiOxNy proceeded through a four-electron transfer process. The single-cell hydrogen/oxygen PEM fuel cell performances based on Pt/TiOxNy cathode electrocatalyst exhibited the same range of characteristics as those based on Pt/C.