Abstract

Electricity is generated by the combined reactions of hydrogen oxidation and oxygen reduction which occur on the Pt/C catalyst surface. There have been lots of researches to make high performance catalysts which can reduce Pt utilization. However, most of catalysts are synthesized by wet-processes and a significant amount of chemicals are emitted during Pt/C synthesis. In this study, Pt/C catalyst was produced by arc plasma deposition process in which Pt nano-particles are directly deposited on carbon black surfaces. During the process, islands of Pt nano-particles were produced and they were very fine and well-distributed on carbon black surface. Compared with a commercialized Pt/C catalyst (Johnson & Matthey), finer particle size, narrower size distribution, and uniform distribution of APD Pt/C resulted in higher electrochemical active surface area even at the less Pt content.

• Keywords: PEMFC;Nano-catalyst;Arc plasma deposition;Characteristics;