Carbon supported Pt hollow nanospheres as anode catalysts for direct borohydride-hydrogen peroxide fuel cells

The carbon supported Pt hollow nanospheres were prepared by employing cobalt nanoparticles as sacrificial templates at room temperature in aqueous solution and used as the anode electrocatalyst for direct borohydride-hydrogen peroxide fuel cell (DBHFC). The physical and electrochemical properties of the as-prepared electrocatalysts were investigated by transmission electron microscopy (TEM), X-ray diffraction (XRD), cyclic voltammetry (CV), chronoamperometry (CA), chronopotentiometry (CP) and fuel cell test. The results showed that the carbon supported Pt nanospheres were coreless and composed of discrete Pt nanoparticles with the crystallite size of about 2.8 nm. Besides, it has been found that the carbon supported Pt hollow nanospheres exhibited an enhanced electrocatalytic performance for BH4− oxidation compared with the carbon supported solid Pt nanoparticles, and the DBHFC using the carbon supported Pt hollow nanospheres as electrocatalyst showed as high as 54.53 mW cm−2 power density at a discharge current density of 44.9 mA cm−2.

► A facile procedure for preparing carbon supported Pt hollow nanospheres was designed and prepared.
► The electrooxidation behavior of BH4− on HNPt/C electrode was first investigated by electrochemical techniques.
► The performance of direct borohydride-hydrogen peroxide fuel cell employing HNPt/C as anode catalyst was reported.