Skip to main content
SpringerLink
Log in

Preparation of Pt–Co alloy catalysts by electrodeposition for oxygen reduction in PEMFC

  • Original Paper
  • Published:
Journal of Applied Electrochemistry Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

Direct current (DC) and pulse current (PC) electrodeposition of Pt–Co alloy onto pretreated electrodes has been conducted to fabricate catalyst electrodes for oxygen reduction reaction (ORR) in proton exchange membrane fuel cells (PEMFC). The effect of plating mode and pulse plating parameters on the Pt–Co alloy catalyst structure, composition and electroactivity for the ORR in PEMFC has been investigated. The electrodeposited Pt–Co alloy catalyst indicates higher electrocatalytic activity towards the ORR than the electrodeposited Pt catalyst. The activity of the electrodeposited Pt–Co catalysts is further improved by applying the current in a pulse waveform pattern. The electrodeposition mode and the pulse plating parameters do not have the significant effect on the Pt:Co composition of deposited catalysts, but show the substantial effect on the deposit structures produced. The Pt–Co catalysts prepared by PC electrodeposition have finer structures and contain smaller Pt–Co catalyst particles compared to that produced by DC electrodeposition. By varying the Pt concentration in deposition solution, the Pt:Co composition of the electrodeposited catalyst that exhibits the highest activity is found. The Pt–Co alloy catalyst with the Pt:Co composition of 82:18 obtained at the charge density of 2 C cm−2, the pulse current density of 200 mA cm−2, 5% duty cycle and 1 Hz was found to yield the best electrocatalytic activity towards the ORR in PEMFC.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this article

Log in via an institution

Price excludes VAT (USA)
Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout.

Instant access to the full article PDF.

Institutional subscriptions

Fig. 1
Fig. 2
Fig. 3
Fig. 4
Fig. 5
Fig. 6
Fig. 7
Fig. 8
Fig. 9
Fig. 10
Fig. 11

Similar content being viewed by others

References

  1. Larminie J, Dicks A (2003) Fuel cell systems explained, 2nd edn. John Wiley & Sons, Chichester, England

    Google Scholar 

  2. Mukerjee S, Srinivasan S (1993) J Electroanal Chem 357:201

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  3. Toda T, Igarashi H, Uchida H, Watanabe M (1999) J Electrochem Soc 146:3750

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  4. Toda T, Igarashi H, Watanabe M (1999) J Electroanal Chem 460:258

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  5. Min M, Cho J, Cho K, Kim H (2000) Electrochim Acta 45:4211

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  6. Paulus UA, Wokaun A, Scherer GG, Schmidt TJ, Stamenkovic V, Markovic NM, Ross PN (2002) Electrochim Acta 47:3787

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  7. Shukla K, Neergat M, Bera P, Jayaram V, Hegde MS (2001) J Electroanal Chem 504:111

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  8. Xiong L, Kannan AM, Manthiram A (2002) Electrochem Commun 4:898

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  9. Stamenkovic V, Schmidt TJ, Ross PN, Markovic NM (2003) J Electroanal Chem 554:191

    Article  Google Scholar 

  10. Xiong L, Manthiram A (2005) Electrochim Acta 50:2323

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  11. Antolini E, Salgado JRC, Gonzalez ER (2005) J Electroanal Chem 580:145

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  12. Paulus UA, Wokaun A, Scherer GG, Schmidt TJ, Stamenkovic V, Radmilovic V, Markovic NM, Ross PN (2002) J Phys Chem 106:4181

    CAS  Google Scholar 

  13. Salgado JRC, Antolini E, Gonzalez ER (2004) J Power Sources 138:56

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  14. Antolini E, Salgado JRC, Giz MJ, Gonzalez ER (2005) Int J Hydrogen Energy 30:1213

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  15. Huang Q, Yang H, Tang Y, Lu T, Akins DL (2006) Electrochem Commun 8:1220

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  16. Lu Y, Reddy RG (2007) Electrochim Acta 52:2562

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  17. Lopes T, Antolini E, Colmati F, Gonzalez ER (2007) J Power Sources 164:111

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  18. Neergat M, Shukla AK, Gandhi KS (2001) J Appl Electrochem 31:373

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  19. Travitsky N, Ripenbein T, Golodnitsky D, Rosenberg Y, Burshtein L, Peled E (2006) J Power Sources 161:782

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  20. Yu P, Pemberton M, Plasse P (2005) J Power Sources 144:11

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  21. Martz N, Roth C, Furß H (2005) J Appl Electrochem 35:85

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  22. Paunovic M, Schlesinger M (1998) Fundamentals of electrochemical deposition. Wiley, New York

    Google Scholar 

  23. Kim H, Subramanian NP, Popov BN (2004) J Power Sources 138:14

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  24. Duarte MME, Pilla AS, Sieben JM, Mayer CE (2006) Electrochem Commun 8:159

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  25. Thompson SD, Jordan LR, Forsyth M (2001) Electrochim Acta 46:1657

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  26. Choi KW, Kim HS, Lee TH (1998) J Power Sources 75:230

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  27. Kim H, Popov BN (2004) Electrochem Solid St 7:A71

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  28. Warren BE (1969) X-ray diffusion. Addison-Wesley, Reading, MA

    Google Scholar 

  29. Baumgartner ME, Raub CJ (1988) Plat Met Rev 32:188

    Google Scholar 

  30. Rao CRK, Trivedi DC (2005) Coord Chem Rev 249:613

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  31. Liu Y, Pritzker M (2003) J Appl Electrochem 33:1143

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  32. Amstrong MJ, Muller RH (1991) J Electrochem Soc 138:2303

    Article  Google Scholar 

  33. Budevski E, Staikov G, Lorenz WJ (1996) Electrochemical Phase formation and growth. VCH, New York

    Google Scholar 

  34. Chène O, Landolt D (1989) J Appl Electrochem 19:188

    Article  Google Scholar 

  35. Zhang X, Chan KY (2002) J Mater Chem 12:1203

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  36. Ibl N, Puippe JC, Angerer H (1978) Surf Tech 6:287

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  37. Puippe JC, Ibl N (1980) Plat Surf Finish 6:68

    Google Scholar 

  38. Tantavichet N, Pritzker MD (2005) Electrochim Acta 50:1849

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  39. Tantavichet N, Pritzker MD (2003) J Electrochem Soc 150:C665

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  40. Watanabe M, Uchida M, Motoo S (1987) J Electroanal Chem 229:395

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  41. Park J, Cheon J (2001) J Am Chem Soc 123:5743

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

Download references

Acknowledgement

The authors express their gratitude to National Center of Excellence for Petroleum, Petrochemicals and Advanced Materials for financial support during the course of this study.

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Chemical Technology, Faculty of Science, Chulalongkorn University, Bangkok, 10330, Thailand

    Yupa Saejeng & Nisit Tantavichet

Authors
  1. Yupa Saejeng
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  2. Nisit Tantavichet
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Nisit Tantavichet.

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Cite this article

Saejeng, Y., Tantavichet, N. Preparation of Pt–Co alloy catalysts by electrodeposition for oxygen reduction in PEMFC. J Appl Electrochem 39, 123–134 (2009). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10800-008-9644-x

Download citation

  • Received:

  • Accepted:

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10800-008-9644-x

Keywords

Search

Navigation