Fabrication and Characterization of New Composite Tio2 Carbon Nanofiber Anodic Catalyst Support for Direct Methanol Fuel Cell via Electrospinning Method

• Published in: Nanoscale research letters Vol. 12; no. 1; pp. 1 - 11
• Main Authors: Abdullah, N., Kamarudin, S. K., Shyuan, L. K., Karim, N. A.
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: New York Springer US 06.12.2017; Springer Nature B.V; SpringerOpen
• Subjects: Carbon fibers; Carbon nanofiber; Catalysis; Catalyst support; Catalysts; Chemistry and Materials Science; Direct methanol fuel cell (DMFC); Electrochemistry; Electrospinning; Fabrication; Flow rates; Flow velocity; Fuel cells; Fuel technology; Lead; Materials Science; Methanol; Molecular Medicine; Nano Express; Nanochemistry; Nanofibers; Nanoscale Science and Technology; Nanotechnology; Nanotechnology and Microengineering; Platinum; Titanium dioxide; Carbon nanofiber; Electrospinning; Direct methanol fuel cell (DMFC); Catalyst support
• ISSN: 1931-7573; 1556-276X
• DOI: 10.1186/s11671-017-2379-z

Platinum (Pt) is the common catalyst used in a direct methanol fuel cell (DMFC). However, Pt can lead towards catalyst poisoning by carbonaceous species, thus reduces the performance of DMFC. Thus, this study focuses on the fabrication of a new composite TiO 2 carbon nanofiber anodic catalyst support for direct methanol fuel cells (DMFCs) via electrospinning technique. The distance between the tip and the collector (DTC) and the flow rate were examined as influencing parameters in the electrospinning technique. To ensure that the best catalytic material is fabricated, the nanofiber underwent several characterizations and electrochemical tests, including FTIR, XRD, FESEM, TEM, and cyclic voltammetry. The results show that D18, fabricated with a flow rate of 0.1 mLhr −1 and DTC of 18 cm, is an ultrafine nanofiber with the smallest average diameter, 136.73 ± 39.56 nm. It presented the highest catalyst activity and electrochemical active surface area value as 274.72 mAmg −1 and 226.75m 2  g −1 PtRu , respectively, compared with the other samples.