Porous Carbon Nanofiber/Carbon Black Composite as Promising Support for Platinum Catalyst to Enhance Oxygen Reduction Reaction in PEMFC

Abstract Porous carbon nanofiber (PCNF) was collaborated with carbon black (CB) to act as composite support (PCNF‐CB) to prepare platinum (Pt) catalyst (Pt/PCNF‐CB) by means of ethylene glycol reduction method. The electrocatalytic activity and stability of Pt/PCNF‐CB and the reference commercial Pt/C catalyst were investigated using cyclic voltammetry (CV) and linear sweep voltammetry (LSV). Among CB content of 20 wt% to 50 wt%, Pt/PCNF‐CB‐30% shows not only better catalytic activity in terms of onset potential and mass activity (MA), but also more durable than Pt/C. After 2000 accelerated potential cycles, Pt/PCNF‐CB‐30% exhibits 68% retention of electrochemical active surface area (ECSA) and 24 mV loss in half‐wave potential, while Pt/C gives 43% retention of ECSA and 94 mV loss in half‐wave potential. Significantly, the single cell performance confirmed that the MEA composed of Pt/PCNF‐CB‐30% as cathode catalyst reveals almost twice maximum power density than that composed of Pt/C catalyst.