COMPARATIVE STUDY OF OMC, MWCNT AND VULCAN XC-72 AS CARBONACEOUS SUPPORTS OF PT CATALYSTS FOR DIRECT ALCOHOL FUEL CELLS APPLICATIONS

摘要

Direct alcohol fuel cells (DAFCs) are being considered as power sources for mobile and portable electronic applications. Among the liquid organic fuels, methanol, ethanol or ethylene glycol has promising characteristics in terms of reactivity at low temperatures, storage and handling. Carbon blacks, especially Vulcan XC-72, are the most commonly used supports for Pt and Pt-based alloys catalysts due to its characteristics of high area superficial and high electric conductivity, however is composed of nanosized carbon particle, extensively agglomerated, with micropores only . Novel non-conventional carbon materials as ordered mesoporous carbons (OMC) and multi-walled carbon nanotubes (MWCNT) has good electrical and mechanical properties and their versatility in pore size and pore distribution tailoring . In this work, carbon materials with different morphological and textural properties are evaluated as support of Pt-catalyst, which could be considered as alternative to replace carbon blacks (Vulcan XC-72). The influence of carbon properties on the preparation of catalysts and its catalytic activity for electro-oxidation of methanol, ethanol, and ethylene glycol were studied in acid media.