Clay as a dispersion agent in anode catalyst layer for PEMFC

We report here a hybrid support that substantially improves the dispersion of nanoparticles with different geometric shapes. Without the addition of any organic dispersant, the plate-like clays effectively disperse spherical carbon black (CB) particles in pulverized powder and 5 wt.% Nafion co-solvent suspension. Fine dispersion of CB particles with an average diameter of 40–60 nm was achieved from the SEM morphology analyses. A 20 wt.% Pt catalyst was then prepared with various weight ratios of CB/clay hybrids by using the impregnation method and TEM studies confirmed the fine dispersion of Pt nanoparticles with an average diameter of 4–5 nm. Polarization measurements verified that by applying an appropriate quantity of clay modules in preparing anode catalyst layer can indeed enhance the fuel cell performance. In other words, we employed clay to improve the dispersion of CB and, in turn, to increase catalyst utilization in PEMFC.