(58g) Performance of Ordered Mesosporous Carbon (OMC) Supported Pt-Electrocatalysts in PEMFC

A series of platinum nanoparticles supported on OMC electrocatalysts with different Pt loading have been prepared for polymer electrolyte membrane fuel cell (PEMFC) applications. In this work, we prepared OMC and modified-OMC using SBA-15 and Ni-SBA-15, respectively, as a hard template with sucrose as source of carbon. The catalysts are characterized by using N₂ adsorption-desorption isotherm (BET), transmission electron microscopy (TEM), small angle x-ray diffraction (XRD), thermo-gravimetric and differential calorimetric analysis (TGA-DSC), temperature programmed reduction (TPR), and Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR). The BET results showed that the synthesized OMC possesses surface area in excess of 1000 m²/g. TEM and XRD results confirm the ordered mesoporous structure. The FTIR spectra showed the complete removal of the silica template. The Pt-catalyst was tested for its performance and polarization on a 5 cm² membrane electrode assembly (MEA) under controlled experimental conditions. The polarization test and cyclic voltammetry analysis of the modified-OMC exhibited improved performance compared to the conventional OMC. The electrochemically active surface area (ECSA) evaluated for modified-OMC was observed to be significantly higher than that of the OMC and commercial carbon black supported catalyst.