Effect of cocatalyst and composition on catalytic performance of amorphous alloys for ethanol electrooxidation and PEMFCs

Proton-exchange membrane fuel cells (PEMFCs) are considered to be a promising technology for clean and efficient power generation in the twenty-first century. To be competitive with traditional power sources, fuel cells must improve in cost, performance, and durability. In this work, amorphous alloys were prepared as anode electrocatalysts for ethanol electro-oxidation and for PEMFCs. One of the goals of this work was to check the suitability of iron as a cocatalyst for ethanol electro-oxidation reaction. Iron based alloys of atomic composition Ni59Nb40Pt0.6Fe0.4 and Ni59Nb39Pt1Fe1 were studied. Then, the PEMFC performance was tested, applying alloys containing iron, palladium and rhodium as cocatalysts. The anode electro-catalyst based on iron showed better polarization and power values than the rhodium and palladium alloys. This result appears to be promising due to the low cost of iron compared to that of the noble metals of Rh and Pd.