A study of pd-b nanoparticles synthesized by stepwise electroless deposition for oxygen reduction reaction catalysts

Abstract

In fuel cell technologies, Platinum (Pt) has always been the favoured choice for electrocatalyst in Oxygen Reduction Reaction (ORR) due to its high catalytic ability and good resilience to dissolution. However, Pt is highly expensive and is scarcely available. In addition, it is highly vulnerable to carbon monoxide poisoning. Therefore, much emphasis has been placed on researches to discover cheaper alternatives for Pt, or Pt-alloys to reduce Pt loadings on the electrocatalyst.

Currently, there are several methods to prepare deposition of nanoparticles. However, most of these methods require long preparation and processing time. This report uses an alternative method which is far simpler and requires less processing time. Several combinations of metal solution and reducing agent such as Dimethylamineborane (DMAB) doped Palladium (Pd) was tested out in this report to observe their catalytic ability. The electrochemical and physical properties of the electrocatalyst were investigated using Cyclic Voltammetry (CV) and Transmission Electron Microscopy (TEM). The data obtained were then used to distinguish the specific activity (i_s), which is normalized to the electrochemically active surface area (ECSA) and mass activity (i_m), which is the rate normalized to the mass of electrocatalyst employed.

Out of all the experiments conducted in this report, DMAB doped Pd in alkaline electrolyte was the electrocatalyst that showed significant improvement in the catalytic ability compared to Platinum loaded Carbon (Pt/C), and Palladium loaded Carbon (Pd/C).