Effect of the mesopores of carbon supports on the CO tolerance of Pt2Ru3 polymer electrolyte fuel cell anode catalyst

• RFCs supports with difference R/C ratios have different pore size and pore volume.
• Prepared PtRu/RFCs anode catalysts can work under 2000 ppm CO contamination.
• Larger pore diameter, higher diffusivity, better CO oxidation reaction.
• The enhancement CO oxidation improves the CO tolerance of prepared catalysts.
• Pore size about 50 nm and pore volume enhance CO tolerance.

To investigate the effects of the porous structure of carbon support for bimetallic PtRu PEFC anode catalysts on their CO tolerance, a series of Resorcinol-formaldehyde carbon gels with different resorcinol to catalyst (R/C) ratios (i.e., 200, 800 and 1000) were synthesized and used to support Pt2Ru3 nanoparticles. Synthesized catalysts were characterized by powder X-ray diffraction, N2 gas adsorption/desorption experiments, and scanning transmission electron microscopy. CO tolerances were evaluated by using a single cell in a H2 feed in the presence of CO ranging from 100 to 2000 ppm. The potential difference of the cell using Pt2Ru3/RC1000ac58 anode catalyst was 0.655 V whereas the cell using a commercial Pt2Ru3/C catalyst showed a voltage of 0.570 V in the presence of 500 ppm CO. The results reveal that high modal size and volume of mesopore enhance diffusivity of CO resulted in effectively oxidization of CO.

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