Electrochemical study of platinum deposited by electron beam evaporation for application as fuel cell electrodes

•Low Pt loading electrodes have been prepared by e-beam evaporation technique.•Electrochemical active surface is in good agreement with those previously reported.•e-Beam evaporation technique can be a scalable preparation method for FC electrodes.•e-Beam cathode power densities per unit platinum mass higher than commercial ones.•e-Beam evaporation: an adequate method for low Pt loading and effective FC electrodes.

Platinum is the most used catalyst in electrodes for fuel cells due to its high catalytic activity. Polymer electrolyte and direct methanol fuel cells usually include Pt as catalyst in their electrodes. In order to diminish the cost of such electrodes, different Pt deposition methods that permit lowering the metal load whilst maintaining their electroactivity, are being investigated. In this work, the behaviour of electron beam Pt (e-beam Pt) deposited electrodes for fuel cells is studied. Three different Pt loadings have been investigated. The electrochemical behaviour by cyclic voltammetry in H2SO4, HClO4 and in HClO4 + MeOH before and after the Pt deposition on carbon cloth has been analysed. The Pt improves the electrochemical properties of the carbon support used. The electrochemical performance of e-beam Pt deposited electrodes was finally studied in a single direct methanol fuel cell (DMFC) and the obtained results indicate that this is a promising and adequate method to prepare fuel cell electrodes.