ELECTROCATALYTICALLY ACTIVE NANOCOMPOSITE MATERIAL AND A PRODUCTION METHOD THEREFOR
20180212255 ยท 2018-07-26
Inventors
- Doriane DEL FRARI (Esch sur Alzette, LU)
- Hicham IBN ELAHRACH (Esch sur Alzette, LU)
- Hongtao LONG (Esch sur Alzette, LU)
- Marc MICHEL (Esch sur Alzette, LU)
Cpc classification
H01M8/1011
ELECTRICITY
Y02P70/50
GENERAL TAGGING OF NEW TECHNOLOGICAL DEVELOPMENTS; GENERAL TAGGING OF CROSS-SECTIONAL TECHNOLOGIES SPANNING OVER SEVERAL SECTIONS OF THE IPC; TECHNICAL SUBJECTS COVERED BY FORMER USPC CROSS-REFERENCE ART COLLECTIONS [XRACs] AND DIGESTS
Y02E60/36
GENERAL TAGGING OF NEW TECHNOLOGICAL DEVELOPMENTS; GENERAL TAGGING OF CROSS-SECTIONAL TECHNOLOGIES SPANNING OVER SEVERAL SECTIONS OF THE IPC; TECHNICAL SUBJECTS COVERED BY FORMER USPC CROSS-REFERENCE ART COLLECTIONS [XRACs] AND DIGESTS
H01M4/886
ELECTRICITY
H01M4/8663
ELECTRICITY
Y02E60/50
GENERAL TAGGING OF NEW TECHNOLOGICAL DEVELOPMENTS; GENERAL TAGGING OF CROSS-SECTIONAL TECHNOLOGIES SPANNING OVER SEVERAL SECTIONS OF THE IPC; TECHNICAL SUBJECTS COVERED BY FORMER USPC CROSS-REFERENCE ART COLLECTIONS [XRACs] AND DIGESTS
International classification
Abstract
A first aspect of the invention relates to an electrocatalytically active nanocomposite material, comprising electrically conductive carbon material decorated with platinum nanoparticles or nanoclusters anchored thereon. The decorated electrically conductive carbon material is overcoated with catecholamine-based polymer. Another aspect of the invention relates to a method for producing electrocatalytically active nanocomposite material.
Claims
1. An electrocatalytically active nanocomposite material, comprising electrically conductive carbon material decorated with platinum nanoparticles or nanoclusters anchored thereon, wherein the electrically conductive carbon material and the platinum nanoparticles or nanoclusters anchored thereon are overcoated with catecholamine-based polymer.
2. The electrocatalytically active nanocomposite material as claimed in claim 1, wherein the electrically conductive carbon material comprises graphitized carbon material.
3. The electrocatalytically active nanocomposite material as claimed in claim 1, wherein the electrically conductive carbon material and the platinum nanoparticles or nanoclusters anchored thereon are overcoated with polydopamine.
4. The electrocatalytically active nanocomposite material as claimed in claim 1, wherein the electrically conductive carbon material comprises a catecholamine surface functionalization and wherein the platinum nanoparticles or nanoclusters are anchored on the surface functionalization of the electrically conductive carbon material.
5. The electro catalytically active nanocomposite material as claimed in claim 1, forming a porous three-dimensional network.
6. The electrocatalytically active nanocomposite material as claimed in claim 1, provided in the form of a suspension.
7. An electrocatalyst, comprising the electrocatalytically active nanocomposite material as claimed in claim 1.
8. A fuel cell comprising the electro catalyst of claim 7.
9. An electrolyser comprising the electrocatalyst of claim 7.
10. A method for producing electrocatalytically active nanocomposite material, comprising: depositing platinum nanoparticles or nanoclusters on electrically conductive carbon material using a suspension of the electrically conductive carbon material in a solution of chloroplatinic acid so as to form platinum-decorated carbon material; and overcoating the platinum-decorated carbon material with catecholamine-polymer.
11. The method as claimed in claim 10, wherein the electrically conductive carbon material comprises graphitized carbon material.
12. The method as claimed in claim 10, wherein the platinum-decorated carbon material is overcoated with polydopamine using a dispersion of the platinum-decorated carbon material in a dopamine salt solution.
13. The method as claimed in claim 10, wherein the electrically conductive carbon material is provided with a catecholamine surface functionalization before deposition of the platinum nanoparticles or nanoclusters.
14. A method for producing an electrocatalyst, comprising: dispersing electrocatalytically active nanocomposite material comprising electrically conductive carbon material decorated with platinum nanoparticles or nanoclusters anchored thereon, the electrically conductive carbon material and the platinum nanoparticles or nanoclusters anchored thereon being overcoated with catecholamine-based polymer, and depositing the dispersed electrocatalytically active nanocomposite material on a substrate so as to create a porous three-dimensional network of the electrocatalytically active nanocomposite material.
15. The method as claimed in claim 14, wherein the substrate comprises at least one of a polymer electrolyte membrane and a gas diffusion layer.
16. The electrocatalytically active nanocomposite material as claimed in claim 2, wherein the graphitized carbon material comprises carbon nanotubes, graphene, or graphite flakes.
17. The electrocatalytically active nanocomposite material as claimed in claim 6, wherein the suspension is a colloidal suspension.
18. The fuel cell of claim 8, wherein the fuel cell is a direct methanol fuel cell or a polymer electrolyte membrane fuel cell.
19. The method as claimed in claim 11, wherein the graphitized carbon material comprises carbon nanotubes, graphene, or graphite flakes.
20. The method as claimed in claim 14, wherein depositing the dispersed electrocatalytically active nanocomposite material on the substrate is carried out using an LBL spraying or dipping technique.
Description
BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS
[0028] The accompanying drawings illustrate several aspects of the present invention and, together with the detailed description, serve to explain the principles thereof. In the drawings:
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DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS
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[0050]
[0051] Two different catalyst supports were prepared: [0052] i) multiwalled carbon nanotubes (MWNTs) decorated with Pt nanoparticles (abbreviated MWNT/Pt; as a comparative example); and [0053] ii) MWNTs decorated with Pt nanoparticles and overcoated with PDA (abbreviated PDA-MWNT/Pt; as an example according to a preferred embodiment of the invention).
[0054] For the obtainment of the MWNT/Pt and the PDA-MWNT/Pt, MWNTs were first oxidized, creating nucleation sites for Pt nanoparticles formation during the reduction of H.sub.2PtCl.sub.4. For each example preparation, 100 mg multi-walled carbon nanotubes (MWNT) in 20 ml ethylene glycol (EG) were stirred under sonication for 10 min. 100 mg of chloroplatinic acid hexahydrate (H.sub.2PtCl.sub.6.6H.sub.2O) in 30 ml EG were added to the suspension under agitation, and then the solution was heated to 140 C. for 1.5 h under reflux. The solution was cooled down to room temperature and kept under agitation for 24 h. MWNT/Pt was collected by filtration and washed with deionized water.
[0055] The so-obtained MWNT/Pt exhibited a fairly uniform distribution of Pt nanoparticles over the entire length of the MWNTs, as can be seen in the transmission electron microscopy (TEM) investigations (
[0056] The polydopamine-modified MWNT/Pt were prepared in the following way. 100 mg of the MWNT/Pt were dispersed in 200 ml of deionized water (10 mM Tris-HCl (pH 8.5)) containing 30 mM of cupric sulphate and 0.1 mg/ml of dopamine hydrochloride, before being stirred for 24 h at room temperature. The obtained PDA-MWNT/Pt were rinsed with deionized water.
[0057] One difficulty in the modification of MWNT/Pt by PDA is precipitation, which may introduce impurities to the MWNT/Pt. Such impurities can affect the structure of the PEMFCs as well as their performances. As it has been shown that the amount of precipitates depends on the dopamine concentration, .sup.[23] the latter was chosen equal to 0.1 mg/mL.
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[0059] To investigate the electrochemical performance of PDA-MWNT/Pt and MWNT/Pt, characterizations were performed by cyclic voltammetry (CV). First, the prepared PDA-MWNT/Pt and MWNT/Pt catalysts were respectively mixed with 1%-wt of Nafion ionomer which plays the role of dispersing agent. The CVs were cycled between 0.2 and 1 V vs. SCE (saturated calomel electrode) reference electrode. For each measurement, 1.2 mg of PDA-MWNT/Pt and MWNT/Pt, respectively, were deposited on a 1 cm diameter glassy carbon electrode to perform a CV measurement. The corresponding cyclic voltammograms can be seen in
ECSA=H.sub.ads/(210 C.Math.cm.sup.2.Math.Pt.sub.loading),
where H.sub.ads stands for hydrogen adsorption in C.Math.cm.sup.2, Pt loading is the electrode Pt loading in g.Math.m.sup.2 and the standard charge of 210 C correlates with the coverage of one cm.sup.2 surface area of three basal Pt planes.
[0060] For the performed CV experiments, the ECSA of PDA-MWNT/Pt and MWNT/Pt was found to be 18.81 m.sup.2g.sup.1 and 11.68 m.sup.2g.sup.1, respectively. The Pt loadings of PDA-MWNT/Pt and MWNT/Pt were measured with thermogravimetric analysis (TGA; Netzsch STA 409) under N.sub.2 from ambient temperature to 120 C. at a rate of 10 C./min; the temperature was then kept constant at 120 C. for 30 min in order to remove all solvent. When that was done, the composite was heated to 1000 C. with a heating rate of 10 C./min.
[0061] The numerical results show that overcoating of the MWNT/Pt catalyst with PDA improves the ECSA value. This result seems to be due to the presence of PDA which enhances the proton conductivity, the hydrophilic property of the MWNT/Pt as well as the catalytic reaction. This last feature can be observed on
[0062] Membrane electrode assemblies (MEAs) were prepared by alternated spraying of PDA-MWNT/Pt and MWNT/Pt catalyst, respectively, onto a Nafion 117 membrane. To this end, the membranes were first pre-treated by boiling in 3%-wt hydrogen peroxide and deionized water for 1 h, then rinsed in boiling deionized water for 1 h, put into boiling 0.5 M sulfuric acid for 30 min, and finally rinsed again in boiling deionized water for 1 h. PDA-MWNT/Pt were dispersed in isopropanol under sonication for 15 min and Nafion perfluorinated resin solution was added to the suspension to obtain a stable dispersion for LBL assembly. The suspension was sprayed onto one of the membranes in the following conditions. Each deposition layer was obtained by 1 s of spraying and left to dry for 1 s before the next layer was applied. The process was repeated until the desired thickness was obtained. In total, 50 layers of PDA-MWNT/Pt were applied. The multilayered nanocomposite stack is noted [PDA-MWNT/Pt)].sub.n, n representing the number of layers sprayed with the same suspension (here n=50).
[0063] A multilayered nanocomposite stack of MWNT/Pt was obtained by LBL spray deposition using similar deposition parameters, in particular, the same number of spraying cycles, but slightly longer deposition times for each layer (2-3 s). The multilayered nanocomposite stack of MWNT/Pt was thus [MWNT/Pt)].sub.50.
[0064] The schematic view of the multilayered electrode assembly is shown in
[0065] In situ fuel cell measurements were performed. The polarization curves for [PDA-MWNT/Pt].sub.50 and [MWNT/Pt].sub.50 and the power density curves are displayed in
[0066]
[0067] In order to compare the stability of the catalyst supports, LBL-spray deposited PDA-coated CNTs (not bearing Pt nanoparticles, [PDA-MWNT].sub.50) and LBL-spray deposited naked CNTs (not bearing Pt nanoparticles, [MWNT].sub.50) were subjected to continued cyclic voltammogram tests (1800 cycles). The results are shown in
[0068] The cyclic voltammograms were acquired with a Gamry Reference 600 potentiostat (USA) in a standard glass three-compartment electrochemical cell with a glassy carbon working electrode (=3 mm), a Pt wire serving as counter electrode and an SCE as the reference electrode. The potential between the working electrode (WE) and reference electrode was cycled between 0.2 to 1 V with a sweep rate of 50 mV s.sup.1. The measurement curves were recorded after a stable response had been obtained. All electrochemical measurements were carried out in 0.5 M (molar) H.sub.2SO.sub.4 (ACS reagent 70%) at 25 C. The electrolyte was purged for 5 min with Ar to eliminate oxygen before testing. After each experiment, the WE was polished with 1-m diamond paste and cleaned using 2000 CVs restructuration cycles between 0-1.6 V with a sweep rate of 10 V s.sup.1 in 0.5 M H.sub.2SO.sub.4 solution to remove remaining surface oxides.
[0069] All materials in these examples (multi-walled carbon nanotubes, Nafion 117 solution, etc.) were used as received from Sigma-Aldrich.
[0070] In the example according to a preferred embodiment of the invention, a novel electrocatalytically active [PDA-MWNT/Pt].sub.50 multilayered nanocomposite film was obtained via spray deposition. The [PDA-MWNT/Pt].sub.n multilayered films showed very high performance in terms of power densities as well as very high Pt utilizations. Furthermore, we proved that PDA-MWNT supports exhibit a better oxidation resistance than MWNT. Hence PDA-MWNT supports are very interesting candidate for replacing carbon black without a loss in performance. Furthermore, a simple preparation technique for high performance and long lasting advanced electrode structures was demonstrated. A porous network of Pt-decorated MWNTs overcoated with PDA was produced using LBL spray-deposition. The porous architecture seems to ease the gas permeability leading to a better accessibility of the Pt nanoparticles.
[0071] While specific examples and embodiments have been described herein in detail, those skilled in the art will appreciate that various modifications and alternatives to those details could be developed in light of the overall teachings of the disclosure. Accordingly, the particular arrangements disclosed are meant to be illustrative only and not limiting as to the scope of the invention, which is to be given the full breadth of the appended claims and any and all equivalents thereof.
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