Nitrogen doped carbon layer coated platinum electrocatalyst supported on carbon nanotubes with enhanced stability

Enhancement in durability of electrocatalyst is still one of the most important issues in polymer electrolyte fuel cells (PEFCs). Here, we report a structurally coated electrocatalyst supported on carbon nanotubes (CNT), in which platinum (Pt) nanoparticles are coated by nitrogen doped carbon (NC) layers. CNT/NC/Pt/NC shows comparable electrochemical surface area (ECSA) and oxygen reduction reaction (ORR) activity to the non-coated electrocatalyst (CNT/NC/Pt), indicating that NC layer on Pt nanoparticles almost negligibly affects the activities of electrocatalyst; while, CNT/NC/Pt/NC exhibits a higher Pt stability due to the unique structure, in which the Pt nanoparticles are stabilized by the NC layers and Pt aggregation is decelerated proved by TEM measurement. Maximum power density of CNT/NC/Pt/NC reached 604 mW cm(-2) with Pt loading of 0.1 mg(pt) cm(-2), which only decreases by 7% compared to CNT/NC/Pt (650 mW cm(-2)). The electrochemical analysis and fuel cell test illustrate that NC layer on Pt nanoparticles enhances the durability without serious deterioration of fuel cell performance. (C) 2017 Hydrogen Energy Publications LLC. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.