Pt deposition on carbon paper and Ti mesh substrates by surface limited redox replacement

Abstract

Alternative energy resources are needed to alleviate the energy crisis. Fuel cells are one of the examples to help solve the problem. The main goal of this research is to reduce the amount of Pt required in fuel cells. Thus the outcome of this work will be lowering the cost of fuel cells in order to compete with current market technologies including gasoline internal combustion engines. The Electrochemical Atomic Layer Deposition (EC-ALD) technique was used to deposit Pt nanoparticles on cabon paper, the material used as gas diffusion layer for proton exchange membrane fuel cells (PEMFCs) and Ti-mesh. The deposition uses multiple redox replacement of underpotentially deposited Cu used as a sacrificial metal. The morphology and particle size of the deposited Pt nanoparticles were characterised using microscopy techniques. Pt composition on the substrates was estimated using energy dispersive X-ray spectroscopy (EDX). The electrochemical performance of the nanostuctures towards hydrogen and methanol oxidation as well as CO adsorption-oxidation, was investigated using cyclic voltammetry. These materials will be used for the fabrication of the membrane electrode assembly for fuel cell application.