Evaluation of impregnated nanocomposite membranes for aqueous methanol electrochemical reforming

•Pt–Pd impregnated nano-composite PEM prepared for methanol electrolysis.•Pt–Pd of a ratio 70:30 showed the best performance on the methanol electrolysis.•Reduced fuel crossover and better catalytic activity improve the cell performance.

In this work, we present the methanol electrolysis performance of the bimetallic Pt–Pd impregnated Nafion based nanocomposite polymer electrolyte membrane prepared by non-equilibrium impregnation–reduction (NEIR) method. The different atomic concentrations of Pt–Pd impregnated nanocomposite membranes were subjected to X-ray diffraction for their structural characteristics. The effect of various parameters such as methanol concentration, cell voltage and temperature on the cell performance was investigated. Further, the bimetallic concentration and catalyst loading were also optimized for methanol electrolysis. The results indicated that the bimetallic Pt–Pd of a ratio 70:30 impregnated Nafion based nano-composite membrane showed the best performance on the methanol electrolysis.