In situ deposition of platinum nanoparticles on bacterial cellulose membranes and evaluation of PEM fuel cell performance

In situ deposition of platinum (Pt) nanoparticles on bacterial cellulose membranes (BC) for a fuel cell application was studied. The platinum/bacterial cellulose (Pt/BC) membranes under different experimental conditions were characterized by using SEM (scanning electron microscopy), TEM (transmission electron microscopy), EDS (energy dispersive spectroscopy), XRD (X-ray diffractometry) and TG (thermo-gravimetric analysis) techniques. TEM images and XRD patterns both lead to the observation of spherical metallic platinum nanoparticles with mean diameter of 3–4 nm well impregnated into the BC fibrils. TG curves revealed these Pt/BC composite materials had the high thermal stability. The electrosorption of hydrogen was investigated by CV (cyclic voltammetry). It was found that Pt/BC catalysts have high electrocatalytic activity in the hydrogen oxidation reaction. The single cell performance of Pt/BC was tested at 20 °C, 30 °C, and 40 °C under non-humidified conditions. Preliminary tests on a single cell indicate that renewable BC is a good prospect to be explored as membrane in fuel cell field [B.R. Evans, H.M. O’Neill, V.P. Malyvanh, I. Lee, J. Woodward, Biosens. Bioelectron. 18 (2003) 917].