Novel Carbon Materials as Electrocatalyst Support for Fuel Cells

Novel Carbon Materials as Electrocatalyst Support for Fuel Cells 35... 

Carbon supports strongly affect fuel cell performance. They may influence the intrinsic catalytic activity and catalyst utilization, but also affect mass transport and ohmic losses. This makes analyses of the role of carbon materials rather complicated. Although numerous studies have been devoted to the carbon support improvement, only a few have attempted to establish relationships between the substructural characteristics of carbon support materials and cell performance. The influence of carbon supports on the intrinsic catalytic activity is the subject of Section 12.6.1. In Section 12.6.2 we consider the influence of support on macrokinetic parameters such as the catalyst utilization, mass transport, and ohmic losses. In Section 12.6.3 we review briefly recent data obtained upon utilization of novel carbon materials as supports for fuel cell electrocatalysts. 

Novel Carbon Materials as Supports for Fuel Cell Electrocatalysts... 

The right choice of a carbon support greatly affects cell performance and durability. The purpose of this chapter is to analyze how structure and properties of carbon materials influence the performance of supported noble metal catalysts in the CLs of the PEMFCs. The review chapter is organized as follows. In Section 12.2 we give an overview of carbon materials utilized for the preparation of the catalytic layers of PEMFC. We describe traditional as well as novel carbon materials, in particular carbon nanotubes and nanofibers and mesoporous carbons. In Section 12.3 we analyze properties of carbon materials essential for fuel cell performance and how these are related to the structural and substructural characteristics of carbon materials. Sections 12.4 and 12.5 are devoted to the preparation and characterization of carbon-supported electrocatalysts and CLs. In Section 12.6 we analyze how carbon supports may influence fuel cell performance. Section 12.7 is devoted to the corrosion and stability of carbon materials and carbon-supported catalysts. In Section 12.8 we provide conclusions and an outlook. Due to obvious space constraints, it was not possible to give a comprehensive treatment of all published data, so rather, we present a selective review and provide references as to where an interested reader may find more detailed information. 

Since the discovery of carbon nanotubes in the early 1990s [273] there has been emerging interest in their applicability as catalyst supports for low-temperature PEMFCs. Recently, Lee et al. reviewed the area of Pt electrocatalyst preparation techniques using carbon nanotubes and nanofibers as supports [274]. Here, the emphasis will be on the impact of novel nanostructured carbon supports (ordered mesoporous materials, nanotubes, and nanofibers) on the electrocatalytic activity with respect to direct fuel cell anodes. 

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