Comparative Study of Platinum and Non-Platinum Cathode Nanocatalysts in Direct Borohydride Fuel Cell

In the recent years, extensive research work is being carried out and reported on improving the performance of nanocatalysts for both anode and cathode of polymer electrolyte membrane fuel cell. The single cell performance of carbon supported non-platinum electrocatalyst (HypermecTMK14) as cathode material was used in alkaline electrolyte borohydride fuel cells and compared to that of 10% Pt/C (commercial). The structural and electrochemical aspects of the HypermecTM K14 and 10% Pt/C (commercial) electrocatalysts were further investigated. Xray diffraction (XRD) indicates the Pt and K14 particles average size. Their morphology was analyzed by SEM. The HypermecTMK14 cathode showed superior performance to that observed using the 10% Pt/C cathode, e.g. power density of K14 is up to 138 mWcm-2. Cyclic voltammetry data exhibit the better borohydride tolerance for K14. So the difference in performance can be attributed to variations in activity towards oxygen reduction reaction and in borohydride tolerance among the cathodes