Electrical enhancement of DMFC by Pt–M/C catalyst-assisted PVD

Direct methanol fuel cells (DMFC) are studied extensively owing to their simple cell configuration, high volume energy density, short start-up time and operation reliability. However, the major drawbacks include high production cost, catalyst and methanol crossover poisoning. This study presents a simple method for Pt–M/C catalyst preparation using a magnetron sputtering (MS) and metal-plasma ion implantation (MPII) technique. The Pt catalysts were sputtered onto a gas diffusion layer (GDL), followed by implanting Cr, Fe, Ni, and Mo catalysts using MPII (accelerating voltage is 20 kV and implantation fluence is 1 × 1016 ions/cm2). The crystallinity and microstructure of the catalyst films were analyzed using X-ray diffraction (XRD), X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS), scanning electronic microscopy (SEM) and transmission electronic microscopy (TEM). The cell performance was tested using potential stat/galvano station. The results indicate that the membrane electrode assembly for Pt–Ni/C, Pt–Fe/C and Pt–Cr/C catalysts can enhance DMFC cell performance, compared with traditional Pt/C and Pt–Ru/C. The maximum Pt–Ni/C power density is 2.4 mW/cm2 with an open circuit voltage (OCV) 0.334 V when tested at a methanol concentration of 1 M.