Hybrid catalyst suitable for use in a proton exchange membrane fuel cell and method of preparing same. In one embodiment, the hybrid catalyst is iron-free and includes an Mn—N—C support and platinum-containing nanoparticles that are dispersed on the Mn—N—C support. The Mn—N—C support preferably comprises atomically dispersed and nitrogen coordinated MnN.sub.4 moieties and has a particle size of about 30 to 200 nm. The platinum-containing nanoparticles preferably have a particle size ranging from about 2 to 8 nm and are made of platinum or a platinum-cobalt intermetallic alloy, such as a cubic L1.sub.2 Pt.sub.3Co alloy or a tetragonal L1.sub.0 PtCo alloy. The hybrid catalyst may be made by combining a quantity of a hexachloroplatinic acid solution with a quantity of an Mn—N—C support, sonicating the mixture in an ice bath, freeze-drying the sonicated product, calcinating the freeze-dried product under a forming gas, and heating the calcinated product.

Disclose is a method of manufacturing catalyst ink for a fuel cell, and particularly the method includes removing eluted transition metal from a noble-metal/transition-metal alloy catalyst.

A fuel cell component including a fuel cell substrate and a nitride material. The material may be a nitride compound having a chemical formula A.sub.xB.sub.yN.sub.z, where A is a metal, B is a metal different than A, N is nitrogen, x>0, y<7 and 0<z<12. The nitride compound may have a ratio of a stoichiometric factor to a reactivity factor of greater than 1.0. The stoichiometric factor indicates the reactivity of a nitride compound with chemical species as compared to a baseline nitride compound. The reactivity factor indicates the reaction enthalpy of the nitride compound and the chemical species as compared to a baseline nitride compound and the chemical species. The nitride compound may be Fe.sub.3Mo.sub.3N, Ni.sub.2Mo.sub.3N, Ni.sub.2W.sub.3N, CuNi.sub.3N, Fe.sub.3WN, Zn.sub.3Nb.sub.3N, V.sub.3Zn.sub.2N or a combination thereof. The nitride compound may be Si.sub.6Y.sub.3N.sub.11, Ni.sub.2Mo.sub.4N, Fe.sub.3Mo.sub.5N.sub.6 or a combination thereof.

Disclosed are a membrane-electrode assembly capable of satisfying both of two requirements of excellent performance and high durability, and a fuel cell including same. The membrane-electrode assembly of the present invention comprises: a first electrode; a second electrode; and an electrolyte membrane between the first and second electrodes, wherein the first electrode includes a first segment having a first durability and a second segment having a second durability that differs from the first durability.

Disclosed are a membrane-electrode assembly capable of satisfying both of two requirements of excellent performance and high durability, and a fuel cell including same. The membrane-electrode assembly of the present invention comprises: a first electrode; a second electrode; and an electrolyte membrane between the first and second electrodes, wherein the first electrode includes a first segment having a first durability and a second segment having a second durability that differs from the first durability.

The present invention discloses a low-platinum catalyst based on nitride nanoparticles and a preparation method thereof. A component of an active metal of the catalyst directly clades on a surface of nitride particles or a surface of nitride particles loaded on a carbon support in an ultrathin atomic layer form. Preparation steps including: preparing a transition-metal ammonia complex first, nitriding the obtained ammonia complex solid under an atmosphere of ammonia gas to obtain nitride nanoparticles; loading the nitride nanoparticles on a surface of a working electrode, depositing an active component on a surface of the nitride nanoparticles by pulsed deposition, to obtain the low platinum loading catalyst using a nitride as a substrate. The catalyst may be used as an anode or a cathode catalyst of a low temperature fuel cell, has very high catalytic activity and stability, can greatly reduce a usage amount of a precious metal in the fuel cell, and greatly reduces a cost of the fuel cell. The present invention has important characteristics of being controllable in deposition amount, simple and convenient to operate, free of protection of inert atmosphere, and etc., and is suitable for large-scale industrial production.

Provided are (i) a catalyst that has a core-shell structure and is highly active in an oxygen reduction reaction, which is a cathode reaction of a fuel cell, and (ii) a reaction acceleration method in which the catalyst is used. A core-shell catalyst for accelerating an oxygen reduction reaction, contains: silver or palladium as a core material; and platinum as a shell material, the core-shell catalyst having, on a surface thereof, a (110) surface of a face centered cubic lattice.

Provided are (i) a catalyst that has a core-shell structure and is highly active in an oxygen reduction reaction, which is a cathode reaction of a fuel cell, and (ii) a reaction acceleration method in which the catalyst is used. A core-shell catalyst for accelerating an oxygen reduction reaction, contains: silver or palladium as a core material; and platinum as a shell material, the core-shell catalyst having, on a surface thereof, a (110) surface of a face centered cubic lattice.

An object of the invention is to increase the output power of a solid oxide fuel cell by making a lower electrode layer porous so as to form a three-phase interface and reducing a thickness of a solid electrolyte layer to 1 micrometer or less. A fuel cell according to the invention includes a first electrode layer at a position where an opening formed in a board is covered, and a solid electrolyte layer having a thickness of 1000 nm or less. At least a part of a region of the first electrode layer covering the opening is porous (see FIG. 5).

A method for constructing a starch fuel cell with an anode belongs to the field of fuel cells. The method includes using a PdNFs/FeNPs/MFC electrode as a working electrode, an Ag/AgCl electrode as a reference electrode, and a platinum wire as an auxiliary electrode to form a three-electrode system. The method includes placing the three-electrode system in a starch solution and a supporting electrolyte; setting the potential as −0.2 to 1.3V. The method includes recording the cyclic voltammetry curves of the starch with concentrations of 1 mmol/L, 3 mmol/L, 5 mmol/L, 7 mmol/L, and 10 mmol/L. The method includes analyzing the control process of the electrode electrocatalytic oxidization of the starch solution by the standard curve method. The present fuel cell can be used to manufacture portable power banks, and can be used in power plants, electric vehicles and other fields.