Testing of Ultra-Low Loading of Platinum on Two Different Carbon Supports for Use in PEM Fuel Cells and Electrolysers

Unofficial AI-generated summary based on the public title and abstract. Not an official translation.

🔬研究者:Provides experimental comparison of carbon supports for low-Pt catalysts, useful for materials scientists working on PEMFC/PEMWE.

🏢実務担当者:The green, scalable sputtering method could be adopted by catalyst manufacturers to reduce production costs.

🏛政策担当者:Supports the technical feasibility of cost reduction in hydrogen technology, informing subsidy and R&D policy for hydrogen infrastructure.

Fuel cells and electrolysers have been seen as low carbon alternatives to conventional uses of energy production and generation, most notably polymer electrolyte membrane fuel cells (PEMFC) and electrolyser (PEMWE) stacks. However, the high cost of catalysts is a hindrance to the widespread implementation due to the use of platinum, which is scarce and expensive. Catalysts can account for around 40% of the cost of the stack, therefore steps to reduce and/or find low-cost alternatives are an attractive proposition (Andrade and Thiringer, 2024, Clark et al., 2025). For this research, low loadings of platinum on two different carbon supports Ketjen Black and Acetylene Black were studied and compared to a commercial catalyst (TKK). Ketjen Black 600JD was considered due to its porosity and has been found to increase platinum utilisation and enhancement of mass transport(Yu et al., 2005). Acetylene Black was chosen due to its popularity in batteries because of its low resistivity, high surface area and ease of coverage(Badam et al., 2015). 1wt%Pt was sputtered onto the two carbon supports as a green, solvent-free way of fabricating catalysts onto supports that is easily scalable to industry production(Kohlrausch et al., 2021). The catalysts were then tested using the NREL benchmark protocol of measuring the Hupd ECSA and ORR activity. CO stripping was also used to obtain ECSA as this gave a better representation of the surface area of the catalyst(NREL 2014, García and Koper 2008). Preliminary CO stripping measurement indicate an ECSA tests of ~39 m2 g-1 for TKK, ~27 m2 g-1 for Acetylene Black and ~24 m2 g-1 for Ketjen Black. The ORR activity was recorded using LSV to study measurable differences of catalytic activity between the different supports and it was found that Platinum on Acetylene Black support showed better activity than TKK and Ketjen Black 600JD was comparable to that of TKK.

• openalex https://doi.org/10.1149/ma2026-01552658mtgabsfirst seen 2026-07-18 05:38:23