Oxygen Reduction Performance of Pt/TiO₂-C Electrocatalyst prepared by Two-step Chemical Vapor Deposition

Abstract

The low durability of Pt/C electro-catalysts in polymer electrolyte membrane fuel cells (PEMFC), e.g., as a result of carbon oxidation to CO2 in an acid medium, has been recognized as one of the most important hindrances to long-term stability. In this work, Pt electrocatalysts supported on TiO2-carbon and Vulcan carbon were prepared by the chemical vapor deposition method. The physical and electrochemical properties of Pt/TiO2-C and Pt/C electrocatalysts were investigated by the characterization techniques of XRD, TEM, CO stripping and cyclic and linear voltammetry. The prepared materials were electrochemically evaluated in the oxygen reduction reaction (ORR) in an acid medium at room temperature. The XRD results show crystalline fcc platinum formation. The mean particle size is between 2 and 4 nm with a spherical morphology. Pt/TiO2-C electrocatalysts showed a higher electrochemical active surface area and better activity results for the ORR compared with the Pt/C samples. The addition of TiO2 to the conventional Pt/C catalyst modifies the electronic properties affecting the oxygen adsorption and improving the catalytic activity for the oxygen reduction reaction.

Highly Platinum-Loaded Magnéli Phase Titanium Oxides as a High Voltage Tolerant Electrocatalyst for Polymer Electrolyte Fuel Cells

“…29 For that reason there are couples of other studies that mix TiO 2 with other conductive materials like C, Au and Ru. [30][31][32][33][34] Titanium suboxides, which follow the integer formula Ti n O 2n−1 (3 < n < 10), referred as the Magnéli phases have attracted attention as catalyst support. 35 It is known that several oxides from these series exhibit high electrical conductivity.…”

Photocatalytically Prepared Metal Nanocluster–Oxide Semiconductor–Carbon Nanocomposite Electrodes for Driving Multielectron Transfer

“…More generally, a metal precursor (usually a complex) is used along with the metal oxide precursors, and the metal nanoclusters and the oxide are deposited in situ on the carbon matrix that is also additionally present in the reaction medium. Chemical reduction of the metal precursor and sol−gel synthesis of the oxide component have been popular routes as Table 1 illustrates, although other methods (e.g., chemical vapor deposition) 15 have been used as well.…”