The effect of cerium oxide nanoparticles on a Pt/C electrocatalyst synthesized by a continuous two-step process for low-temperature fuel cell

Abstract

An effective method was developed for preparing highly dispersed CeO2 nanoparticle on a Pt/C catalyst synthesized by a continuous two-step process. From the XRD patterns, the diffraction pattern of the 20Pt–10CeO2/C catalyst revealed that both crystalline Pt and CeO2 phases coexisted. The TEM images show that the Pt and CeO2 nanoparticles were well-dispersed on the surface of the carbon support, which is known to be important for activity in the ORR test. In the ORR and single-cell tests, the 20Pt–10CeO2/C catalyst showed higher performance than a commercial 20Pt/C catalyst, owing to the oxygen storage capacity of CeO2 and its ability to rapidly exchange oxygen with oxygen in the buffer.