Functionalized Carbon Black Supported Silver (Ag/C) Catalysts in Cathode Electrode for Alkaline Anion Exchange Membrane Fuel Cells

Two kinds of non-platinum metal catalysts, 40 wt% Ag/C (Ag/C) prepared using the impregnation method and commercial nano-silver powder (commercial Ag) were used as the cathode catalysts in alkaline anion exchange membrane fuel cells (AEMFC). In the surface measurement and elemental composition analysis of the prepared Ag/C catalyst, XRD revealed that the silver nanoparticles were successfully produced and attached onto the carbon black supporter. In addition, SEM and TEM analyses showed the silver nanoparticle size catalyst was less than 20 nm in the synthesized Ag/C. EDX and TGA analyses confirmed that the actual Ag loading in the Ag/C catalyst was near the calculated value in the synthesis procedure. For AEMFC performance tests, the results showed that the maximum power densities using Ag/C, commercial Ag, and Pt/C as the cathode catalysts were 200 mW cm(-2) at 0.4 V, 105 mW cm(-2) at 0.3 V, and 207 mW cm(-2) at 0.5 V which were consistent with the CVs and LSV characterizations. These results indicated that the performance of tested AEMFC with Ag/C and commercial Ag catalysts was 3.5% and 49.3% less than that of AEMFC with Pt/C, respectively. This study successfully implemented non-Pt catalyst for the cathode electrode in AEMFC applications.