Nanostructured nickel nanoparticles supported on vulcan carbon as a highly active catalyst for the hydrogen oxidation reaction in alkaline media

An alkaline membrane fuel cell (AMFC) is considered as a promising technology allowing to convert chemical energy of a fuel, for example hydrogen, into electricity. The use of alkaline electrolytes opens up possibility of utilizing low-cost transition metal catalysts, which are unstable in acidic electrolytes. Herein, we developed a facile and efficient method to prepare carbon-supported nickel nanoparticles of small size (10 nm) at high metal loading (42 ± 3 wt%) by electrodeposition. The resultant NiED/XC-72 catalyst exhibits remarkably high mass activity in the hydrogen oxidation reaction, which can be further enhanced by partial oxidation of the metal surface. The activity achieved amounts to ca. 22 A·gNi−1, thus being comparable to the values reported for commercial 20% Pd/C catalyst (38 A·gPd−1). The excellent electrocatalytic performance indicates that the NiED/XC-72 catalyst can be considered as a replacement of the precious metals at the anodes of AMFCs.