Preparation method of Ni@Pt/C nanocatalyst affects the performance of direct borohydride-hydrogen peroxide fuel cell: Improved power density and increased catalytic oxidation of borohydride

Mir Ghasem Hosseini; Raana Mahmoodi

doi:10.1016/j.jcis.2017.04.016

Preparation method of Ni@Pt/C nanocatalyst affects the performance of direct borohydride-hydrogen peroxide fuel cell: Improved power density and increased catalytic oxidation of borohydride

J Colloid Interface Sci. 2017 Aug 15:500:264-275. doi: 10.1016/j.jcis.2017.04.016. Epub 2017 Apr 8.

Authors

Mir Ghasem Hosseini¹, Raana Mahmoodi²

Affiliations

¹ Department of Physical Chemistry, Electrochemistry Research Laboratory, University of Tabriz, Tabriz, Iran; Engineering Faculty, Department of Materials Science and Nanotechnology, Near East University, 99138 Nicosia, North Cyprus, Mersin 10, Turkey. Electronic address: mg-hosseini@tabrizu.ac.ir.
² Department of Physical Chemistry, Electrochemistry Research Laboratory, University of Tabriz, Tabriz, Iran. Electronic address: r.mahmoodi2011@yahoo.com.

PMID: 28411433
DOI: 10.1016/j.jcis.2017.04.016

Abstract

The Ni@Pt/C electrocatalysts were synthesized using two different methods: with sodium dodecyl sulfate (SDS) and without SDS. The metal loading in synthesized nanocatalysts was 20wt% and the molar ratio of Ni: Pt was 1:1. The structural characterizations of Ni@Pt/C electrocatalysts were investigated by field emission scanning electron microscopy (FE-SEM), energy-dispersive X-ray spectroscopy (EDX), X-ray diffraction (XRD), transmission electron microscopy (TEM) and high-resolution transmission electron microscopy (HR-TEM). The electrocatalytic activity of Ni@Pt/C electrocatalysts toward BH₄^- oxidation in alkaline medium was studied by means of cyclic voltammetry (CV), chronopotentiometry (CP), chronoamperometry (CA) and electrochemical impedance spectroscopy (EIS). The results showed that Ni@Pt/C electrocatalyst synthesized without SDS has superior catalytic activity toward borohydride oxidation (22016.92Ag_Pt^-1) in comparison with a catalyst prepared in the presence of SDS (17766.15Ag_Pt^-1) in NaBH₄ 0.1M at 25°C. The Membrane Electrode Assembly (MEA) used in fuel cell set-up was fabricated with catalyst-coated membrane (CCM) technique. The effect of Ni@Pt/C catalysts prepared with two methods as anode catalyst on the performance of direct borohydride-hydrogen peroxide fuel cell was studied. The maximum power density was obtained using Ni@Pt/C catalyst synthesized without SDS at 60°C, 1M NaBH₄ and 2M H₂O₂ (133.38mWcm^-2).

Keywords: Catalyst-coated membrane technique; Direct borohydride-hydrogen peroxide fuel cell; Ni@Pt/C nanoparticles; Sodium dodecyl sulfate.