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Integrated High‐Efficiency Pt/Carbon Nanotube Arrays for PEM Fuel Cells |
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| Authors: | Weimin Zhang Andrew I. Minett Mei Gao Jie Zhao Joselito M. Razal Gordon G. Wallace Tony Romeo Jun Chen |
| Affiliation: | 1. Intelligent Polymer Research Institute, AIIM Facility, Innovation Campus, University of Wollongong, NSW 2522, Australia;2. Division of Materials Science and Engineering, CSIRO, Bayview Ave, Clayton, VIC 3168, Australia |
| Abstract: | A facile strategy to deposit Pt nanoparticles with various metal‐loading densities on vertically aligned carbon nanotube (ACNT) arrays as electrocatalysts for proton exchange membrane (PEM) fuel cells is described. The deposition is achieved by electrostatic adsorption of the Pt precursor on the positively charged polyelectrolyte functionalized ACNT arrays and subsequent reduction by L ‐ascorbic acid. The application of the aligned electrocatalysts in fuel cells is realized by transferring from a quartz substrate to nafion membrane using a hot‐press procedure to fabricate the membrane electrode assembly (MEA). It is shown that the MEA with vertically aligned structured electrocatalysts provides better Pt utilization than that with Pt on conventional carbon nanotubes or carbon black, resulting in higher fuel cell performance. |
| Keywords: | electrocatalyst carbon nanotube arrays fuel cells platinum |