Electrochemically Active Surface Area Measurement of Aged Pt Alloy Catalysts in PEM Fuel Cells by CO Stripping

The use of hydrogen adsorption/desorption (HAD) is a convenient method to measure the Pt surface area of a catalyst. However, it was shown that electrochemical charges measured by this technique can underestimate the Pt surface area by up to a factor of two for small Pt nanoparticles or Pt alloy nanoparticles. Electrooxidation of CO, so-called CO stripping, has been shown to be more accurate. Yet measurements of CO stripping in MEAs are scarce, especially on high activity alloy catalysts. In this study we investigated CO stripping and the ratio between Pt surface areas measured by CO and by HAD on several Pt and Pt alloy catalysts. The effects on these measurements of temperature and catalyst aging by voltage cycling are discussed. (C) The Author(s) 2016. Published by ECS. All rights reserved.