Facile synthesis of highly conducting and mesoporous carbon aerogel as platinum support for PEM fuel cells

We report novel method for synthesis of carbon aerogel as platinum support for PEM fuel cells applications. The sol gel polymerization has been carried out using resorcinol and furfuraldehyde in non-aqueous medium followed by gelation at high pressure. This resulted in highly conducting and mesoporous carbon aerogel under ambient drying conditions. Platinum nano-particles are impregnated in the mesoporous carbon aerogel using microwave assisted polyol process. The support material and the catalyst are characterized by different analytical techniques like surface area analyzer, X-ray diffraction, transmission electron microscopy and X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy. Cyclic voltammetry and linear sweep voltammetry are used to evaluate the electro–catalytic activity of the Pt/carbon aerogel catalyst using rotating disk electrode technique. Well dispersed Pt nano-particles of size ∼3 nm on carbon aerogel showed good catalytic activity with onset potential of 964 mV and half wave potential of 814 mV towards oxygen reduction reaction kinetics. A membrane electrode assembly fabricated with the prepared Pt/carbon aerogel catalyst as a cathode and anode is tested in PEMFCs (H2O2) single cell, the power density of 536 mW cm−2 at 0.6 V is obtained at 60 °C under atmospheric pressure.