Electrochemical deposition and characterization of platinum on carbon paper and Ni foam

Abstract

There are various methods used to prepare fuel cell (FC) catalysts. The electrochemical deposition method is well known for the fabrication of nanostructured catalysts for energy materials. Electrochemical atomic layer deposition (ECALD) method was chosen in this study for the deposition of Pt nanostructures onto FC gas diffusion layer (GDL). The typical GDL for fuel cells, carbon paper was chosen as a substrate for the deposition of Pt. Ni foam was selected because it performed better than Ni mesh as electrode substrate in alkaline fuel cells 2. Electrochemical evaluation and morphological studies were carried out on the electrodeposited Pt. Cyclic voltammograms of the electrodeposited Pt nanostructures showed features characteristic of polycrystalline Pt electrodes. SEM/AFM images showed good quality deposits that uniformly covered the substrates and EDX confirmed the presence of Pt. The ease, flexibility and cost effectiveness of this method for preparing nanostructured catalysts makes it advantageous for application in fuel cell.