Kinetics of Oxygen Reduction Reaction of Polymer-Coated MWCNT-Supported Pt-Based Electrocatalysts for High-Temperature PEM Fuel Cell

Md Ahsanul Haque (), Md Mahbubur Rahman, Faridul Islam, Abu Bakar Sulong, Loh Kee Shyuan, Ros emilia Rosli, Ashok Kumar Chakraborty and Julfikar Haider ()
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Md Ahsanul Haque: Fuel Cell Institute, Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia, Bangi 43600, Malaysia
Md Mahbubur Rahman: Department of General Educational Development, Daffodil International University, Dhaka 1216, Bangladesh
Faridul Islam: Institute of Food Science and Technology, Bangladesh Council of Scientific and Industrial Research (BCSIR), Dhaka 1205, Bangladesh
Abu Bakar Sulong: Fuel Cell Institute, Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia, Bangi 43600, Malaysia
Loh Kee Shyuan: Fuel Cell Institute, Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia, Bangi 43600, Malaysia
Ros emilia Rosli: Fuel Cell Institute, Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia, Bangi 43600, Malaysia
Ashok Kumar Chakraborty: Department of Applied Chemistry & Chemical Engineering, Islamic University, Kushtia 7003, Bangladesh
Julfikar Haider: Department of Engineering, Faculty of Science and Engineering, Manchester Metropolitan University, Manchester M1 5GD, UK

Energies, 2023, vol. 16, issue 3, 1-17

Abstract: Sluggish oxygen reduction reaction (ORR) of electrodes is one of the main challenges in fuel cell systems. This study explored the kinetics of the ORR reaction mechanism, which enables us to understand clearly the electrochemical activity of the electrode. In this research, electrocatalysts were synthesized from platinum (Pt) catalyst with multi-walled carbon nanotubes (MWCNTs) coated by three polymers (polybenzimidazole (PBI), sulfonated tetrafluoroethylene (Nafion), and polytetrafluoroethylene (PTFE)) as the supporting materials by the polyol method while hexachloroplatinic acid (H 2 PtCl 6 ) was used as a catalyst precursor. The oxygen reduction current of the synthesized electrocatalysts increased that endorsed by linear sweep voltammetry (LSV) curves while increasing the rotation rates of the disk electrode. Additionally, MWCNT-PBI-Pt was attributed to the maximum oxygen reduction current densities at −1.45 mA/cm 2 while the minimum oxygen reduction current densities of MWCNT-Pt were obtained at −0.96 mAcm 2 . However, the ring current densities increased steadily from potential 0.6 V to 0.0 V due to their encounter with the hydrogen peroxide species generated by the oxygen reduction reactions. The kinetic limiting current densities (J K ) increased gradually with the applied potential from 1.0 V to 0.0 V. It recommends that the ORR consists of a single step that refers to the first-order reaction. In addition, modified MWCNT-supported Pt electrocatalysts exhibited high electrochemically active surface areas (ECSA) at 24.31 m 2 /g of MWCNT-PBI-Pt, 22.48 m 2 /g of MWCNT-Nafion-Pt, and 20.85 m 2 /g of MWCNT-PTFE-Pt, compared to pristine MWCNT-Pt (17.66 m 2 /g). Therefore, it can be concluded that the additional ionomer phase conducting the ionic species to oxygen reduction in the catalyst layer could be favorable for the ORR reaction.

Keywords: oxygen reduction reaction; linear sweep voltammetry; catalyst-supporting materials; multi-walled carbon nanotube; electrocatalyst; fuel cell (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: Q Q0 Q4 Q40 Q41 Q42 Q43 Q47 Q48 Q49 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2023
References: View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

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