The study of synergism effect in physical mixture of Cobalt and platinum electro catalyst for oxygen reduction reaction in PEM fuel cell

Gas diffusion electrodes are one of the important parts in fuel cells. Optimizing electrocatalyst is one of the approaches for increasing the efficiency of the electrodes. The aim of the present research project is to increase the catalytic activity toward oxygen reduction reaction (ORR). Hence In this work, Platinum-Cobalt electrocatalyst on Graphite(Pt-Co/G) electrode was prepared by physical mixture of platinum and cobalt electro catalysts. For this purpose, Cobalt on Graphite(Co/G) and Platinum on graphite(Pt/G) mixtures at various percent (20:80, 40:60, 50:50, 60:40, and 80:20) were used for fabrication of gas diffusion electrode in cathode of PEM fuel cell. The amount of electrocatyst in reaction layer was 0.3 mg/cm2. the metal percentage in prepared electrocatalyst was 20 %. The electro catalytic performance of the electrode was investigated by electrochemical Impedance Spectroscopy (EIS) and Linear Sweep Voltammetry (LSV). according to the results, in the optimized condition the mixture of 80% Pt/G and 20% Co/G electrocatalyst in reaction layer provide excellent electrochemical condition for ORR and promote sluggish ORR compare to other electrodes results from other percent of physical mixture of Pt/G and Co/G electrocatalyst