Low platinum loading electrospun electrodes for proton exchange membrane fuel cells
Name
153286417-MIT.pdf
Description
Full printable version
Size
15.47 MB
Format
Adobe PDF
Checksum (MD5)
8f504d24d0dc92857cf7c73cb3748e12
Author(s)
Singer, Simcha Lev
Advisor(s)
Yang Shao-Horn.
Date Issued
2006
Publisher
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Abstract
An experimental study was performed to evaluate the utility of electrospun carbon nanofiber supports for sputtered platinum catalyst in proton exchange membrane fuel cells. The performance of the sputtered nanofiber supports was similar to that of sputtered commercial gas diffusion layers in single cell fuel cell tests. However, sputtered platinum electrodes performed significantly worse than commercial thin film electrodes due to high activation and concentration voltage losses. Cyclic voltammetry and rotating disc electrode experiments were performed in order to evaluate the influence of platinum loading and particle size on the electrochemical active area and oxygen reduction performance of the sputtered platinum. Active area per weight catalyst decreased with sputtering time, and the oxygen reduction activity slightly increases with increasing sputtering time. Both of these effects are thought to be due to increasing platinum particle size as sputtering time is increased.
Description
Thesis (S.M.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Dept. of Mechanical Engineering, 2006.
Includes bibliographical references (p. 104-106).
Subjects
Mechanical Engineering.
MIT Department
Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Department of Mechanical Engineering
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