Abstract

Aligned carbon nanotubes (CNTs) with Pt uniformly deposited on them are being considered in fabricating the catalyst layer of polymer electrolyte membrane (PEM) fuel cell electrodes. When coated with a proton conducting polymer (e.g., Nafion) on the Pt/CNTs, each Pt/CNT acts as a nanoelectrode and a collection of such nanoelectrodes constitutes the proposed nanostructured electrodes. Computer modeling was performed for the cathode side, in which both multicomponent and Knudsen diffusion were taken into account. the effect of the nanoelectrode lengths was also studied with catalyst layer thicknesses of 2, 4, 6, and 10 μm. It was observed that shorter lengths produce better electrode performance due to lower diffusion barriers and better catalyst utilization. the effect of spacing between the nanoelectrodes was studied. Simulation results showed the need to have sufficiently large gas pores, i.e., large spacing, for good oxygen transport. However, this is at the cost of obtaining large electrode currents due to reduction of the number of nanoelectrodes per unit geometrical area of the nanostructured electrode. an optimization of the nanostructured electrodes was obtained when the spacing was at about 400 nm that produced the best limiting current density. © 2008 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Department(s)

Chemical and Biochemical Engineering

Comments

National Science Foundation, Grant 0522931

Keywords and Phrases

Carbon nanotubes; Catalyst layer; Fuel cells; Nanostructured electrodes; Platinum loading; Simulation

International Standard Serial Number (ISSN)

0378-7753

Document Type

Article - Journal

Document Version

Citation

File Type

text

Language(s)

English

Rights

© 2024 Elsevier, All rights reserved.

Publication Date

01 Dec 2008

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