The next generation solid acid fuel cell electrodes: stable, high performance with minimized catalyst loading

• Published in: Journal of materials chemistry. A, Materials for energy and sustainability Vol. 5; no. 29; pp. 1521 - 1525
• Main Authors: Lohmann, F. P, Schulze, P. S. C, Wagner, M, Naumov, O, Lotnyk, A, Abel, B, Varga, Á
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: 2017
• ISSN: 2050-7488; 2050-7496
• DOI: 10.1039/c7ta03690f

Low electrode impedance paired with low catalyst loading in intermediate and low temperature fuel cells is extremely difficult to achieve, posing a major obstacle to commercialization. Here we demonstrate a scalable and facile route to obtain nanostructured composite solid acid fuel cell electrodes consisting of Pt decorated carbon nanotubes and CsH 2 PO 4 microparticles as the electrolyte. Electrochemical impedance measurements in humidified hydrogen at 240 °C show very low 0.05 Ω cm 2 area normalized electrode resistance, with a Pt loading of only 0.41 mg Pt cm −2 . This is a reduction of the Pt loading by more than one order of magnitude paired with even lower electrode impedance values compared to the current state-of-the-art in literature. Fuel-cell measurements show remarkably stable electrode performance over a 17 h period with a final degradation rate of 0.1% h −1 . Stable and high electrode performance is paired with low catalyst loading, achieved by using a novel electrode architecture. Finely dispersed, 2-3 nm Pt particles on CNTs are obtained via metal-organic chemical vapor deposition, forming an interconnected catalyst network on solid acid microparticles.