Abstract
Platinum is deposited into porous carbon materials relevant for fuel cell electrodes using plasma sputtering techniques. The resulting platinum concentration profile extends up to 2 μm into the porous carbon and is well fitted by a generalized stretched Gaussian function, which displays the non-thermal nature of the penetration process. Platinum deposits are observed to grow as clusters. On the outermost carbon particles, platinum nano-cluster sizes of 3.5 nm have been measured. In tests using actual PEM fuel cells, current densities as high as 1000mA cm-2 have been obtained at 400 mV with 25 cm2 plasma electrodes. This compares favourably with commercially available electrodes but the present electrodes have a platinum density 4.5 times lower and hence can be considered to be significantly more efficient.
Original language | English |
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Pages (from-to) | 3419-3423 |
Number of pages | 5 |
Journal | Journal Physics D: Applied Physics |
Volume | 37 |
Issue number | 24 |
DOIs | |
Publication status | Published - 21 Dec 2004 |