Preparation and characterization of PANI supported Pt catalysts for low-temperature fuel cell

The goal to use fuel cell in low temperature is to improve the performance cathode catalyst. It is specifically important in harsh conditions, to prevent corrosion of cathode sides and to support standard load of carbon and simulate high load of platinum (Pt). Considering mentioned reasons, we used polyaniline as alternative support material to synthesize electrocatalyst. Polyaniline has advantage in good electron conductivity (10¹-10² S/cm); easy preparation under reproducible conditions using both methods of electro-polymerization and chemical oxidation of aniline and in addition property of high chemical stability in any environmental condition. In our study we did research on synthesis of polyaniline (PANI) via interfacial polymerization reaction supported by aniline monomer and ammonium peroxydisulfate. Both PANI supported by Pt electro-catalyst (Pt/PANI) and Black Carbon supported by Pt electro-catalyst (Pt/C) prepared using polyol method. The synthesized Pt/PANI and Pt/C catalysts are analyzed using several methods on X-ray diffraction (XRD), X-ray absorption (XAS) and Scanning Electron Microscopy (SEM). From XRD data we found the size of metal nano particles in 4.3 nm for Pt/PANI and 5.9 nm for Pt/C, respectively. The analysis of XAS data resulted in discovery of inter atomic distance (Pt/PANI_Pt-Pt-2.748 Å, Pt/CB_Pt-Pt-2.756 Å) and coordinates (Pt/PANI_N-7.8, Pt/CB_N-10.2).