Influence of carbon nanofiber properties as electrocatalyst support on the electrochemical performance for PEM fuel cells

Novel carbonaceous supports for electrocatalysts are being investigated to improve the performance of polymer electrolyte fuel cells. Within several supports, carbon nanofibers blend two properties that rarely coexist in a material: a high mesoporosity and a high electrical conductivity, due to their particular structure. Carbon nanofibers have been obtained by catalytic decomposition of methane, optimizing growth conditions to obtain carbon supports with different properties. Subsequently, the surface chemistry has been modified by an oxidation treatment, in order to create oxygen surface groups of different nature that have been observed to be necessary to obtain a higher performance of the electrocatalyst.Platinum has then been supported on the as-prepared carbon nanofibers by different deposition methods and the obtained catalysts have been studied by different electrochemical techniques. The influence of carbon nanofibers properties and functionalization on the electrochemical behavior of the electrocatalysts has been studied and discussed, obtaining higher performances than commercial electrocatalysts with the highest electrical conductive carbon nanofibers as support.