Fuel cells nanocomposite

Xiong, L. and Manthiram, A. (2004) Synthesis and characterization of methanol tolerant Pt/TiOx/C nanocomposites for oxygen reduction in direct methanol fuel Cells. Electrochimica Acta, 49 (24), 4163-4170. 

Steigerwalt, S.E. et al., A Pt-Ru/graphitic carbon nanofiber nanocomposite exhibiting high relative performance as a direct-methanol fuel cell anode catalyst, J. Phys. Chem. B., 105, 8097, 2001. 

Lin, Y., et ah, Platinum/carbon nanotube nanocomposite synthesized in supercritical fluid as electrocatalysts for low-temperature fuel cells. The Journal of Physical Chemistry B, 2005. 109(30) p. 14410-14415. 

Materials development and synthesis is another important dual-use type of chemistry. Developments over the past few decades include a number of elec-troitic materials and their processing, fuel cells and batteries, photoresist and semiconductor synthesis, high-performance composites (structural components) and nanocomposite materials, colloidal nanoparticle technology, solid-state lasers, and light-emitting diodes. 

Figure 7 depicts histograms of size distribution of bimetallic nanoparticles in carbon matrix. Nanoparticles finely disperced in carbon matrix based on IRPAN are sized as 280% Pt-Re nanoparticles have the size as 6-7 nm. This metal-carbon nanocomposites can be used as possible catalyst materials in fuel cells. 

IR-pyrolysis of composite-precursor based on PAN as well as H2PtCl6 and RuC13 or NH4ReC>4 (Pt Ru(Re)=10 l) allows the preparation of Pt-Ru and Pt-Re alloys nanoparticles with 2carbon matrix. Such metal-carbon nanocomposites can se used as the possible catalyst material in fuel cells. 

Recent work by Lukehart et al. has demonstrated the applicability of this technique to fuel-cell catalyst preparation [44g,h]. Through the use of microwave heating of an organometallic precursor that contains both Pt and Ru, PtRu/Vulcan carbon nanocomposites have been prepared that consist of PtRu alloy nanoparticles highly dispersed on a powdered carbon support [44g]. Two types of these nanocomposites containing 16 and 50 wt.% metal with alloy nanoparticles of 3.4 and 5.4 nm, respectively, are formed with only 100 or 300 s of microwave heating time. The 50 wt.% supported nanocomposite has demonstrated direct methanol fuel-cell anode activity superior to that of a 60 wt.% commercial catalyst in preliminary measurements. 

Holmberg, B.A. Wang, H. Norbeck, J.M. Yan, Y. Nafion/acid functionalized zeolite nanocomposite fuel cell membranes. Polym. Prepr. (Am. 

Keywords Hybrid ionomeric membrane Inorganic particles and networks Nanocomposite membrane PEM fuel cell membrane... 

D. R. Shin, J. S. Kim, Preparation and performance of a Nafion /montmoril-lonite nanocomposite membrane for direct methanol fuel cell. Journal of Power Sources 118 (2003) 205-211. 

Mahmood, N., C. Z. Zhang, H. Yin, and Y. L. Hou. 2014. Graphene-based nanocomposites for energy storage and conversion in lithium batteries, supercapacitors and fuel cells. Journal of Materials Chemistry A 2 15—32. 

The combination of favorable properties of PANI and TiO opens the possibility for various applications of PANI/TiO nanocomposite materials, such as piezoresistivity devices [41], electrochromic devices [99,118], photoelectrochemical devices [43,76], photovoltaic devices/solar cells [44,50,60,61,93,119], optoelectronic devices/UV detectors [115], catalysts [80], photocatalysts [52,63,74,75,78,84,87,97,104,107,121,122,125], photoelectrocatalysts [122,123], sensors [56,61,65,69,85,86,95,120,124], photoelectrochemical [110] and microbial fuel cells [71], supercapacitors [90,92,100,109,111], anode materials for lithium-ion batteries [101,102], materials for corrosion protection [82,113], microwave absorption materials [77,87,89], and electrorheological fluids [105,106]. In comparison with PANI, the covalently bonded PANI/TiO hybrids showed significant enhancement in optical contrast and coloration efficiency [99]. It was observed that the TiO nanodomains covalently bonded to PANI can act as electron acceptors, reducing the oxidation potential and band gap of PANI, thus improving the long-term electrochromic stability [99]. Colloidal... 

Recently, in our group, we evaluated the potentiality of a poly(iniide) (PI)/ organically-modified montmorillonite (O-MMT) nanocomposite membrane for the use in alkaline fuel cells [73]. Both X-ray diffraction and scanning electron microscopy revealed a good dispersion of O-MMT into the PI matrix and preservation of the O-MMT layered structure. When compared to the pure PI, the addition of O-MMT improved thermal stability and markedly increased the capability of absorbing electrolyte and ionic conductivity of the composite. Based on these results, the PI/ O-MMT nanocomposite is a promising candidate for alkaline fuel cell appUcations. 

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