Influence of Pore Structure of N-Doped Mesoporous Carbon in PEM Fuel Cells

摘要

SBA-15 was treated with different concentrations of tetraethyl orthosilicate (TEOS) in the presence of HC1, which catalyzed the hydrolysis and condensation of TEOS, resulting in additional silica to be deposited onto SBA-15, modifying its structure. Although the pore size distribution (PSD) plot showed that wall thickness of SBA-15 changed upon treatment with TEOS, the pore size of the resulting nitrogen doped mesoporous carbon (NMC) did not change significantly. The NMCs were increasingly structurally disordered with the additional TEOS treatment. When platinum nanoparticles (Pt NPs) were deposited on them, uniform particle size and distribution was obtained. Among the NMCs, the most disordered sample showed the lowest activation and mass-transfer overpotentials in a laboratory scale proton exchange membrane fuel cell.