The durability of carbon supported Pt nanowire as novel cathode catalyst for a 1.5 kW PEMFC stack

• PtNW/C fabricated by a simple and inexpensive template-free methodology.
• PtNW/C nanowire demonstrate significant ORR activity.
• Drive cycle testing along with in-situ and ex-situ ADT showed PtNW/C exhibited better durability.
• PtNW/C material demonstrate improved stability under the practical conditions encountered for automotive applications.

Carbon supported platinum nanowires (PtNW/C) synthesized by a simple and inexpensive template-free methodology has been used for the first time as a cathode catalyst in a 15 cell with an active area of 250 cm2, 1.5 kW proton exchange membrane fuel cell (PEMFC) stack. Drive cycle testing along with in-situ and ex-situ accelerated degradation testing (ADT) showed that the PtNW/C catalyst exhibited better durability than commercial Pt/C. After a 420 h dynamic drive cycle durability testing, the PEMFC stacks exhibited a performance degradation rate of 14.4% and 17.9% for PtNW/C and commercial Pt/C based cathodes, respectively. It was found that the majority of performance loss was due to degradation of the commercial Pt/C anode materials, resulting from the rapidly changing load frequencies used in the testing protocol, ultimately leading to harsh fuel/air starvation conditions and subsequent Pt nanoparticle growth and agglomeration. Notably, based on post-testing characterization, the structure, electrochemically active surface area (ECSA) and oxygen reduction activity of the PtNW/C cathode catalyst remained unchanged during the drive cycling, indicating its excellent stability under these practical conditions. Conversely, when using commercial Pt/C as a cathode catalyst, significant Pt nanoparticle growth and agglomeration were observed, resulting in the reduced PEMFC stack durability. Therefore, PtNW/C materials are presented as promising replacements to conventional Pt/C as cathode electrocatalysts for PEMFCs, and particularly demonstrate improved stability under the practical conditions encountered for automotive applications.

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