Plasma based platinum nanoaggregates deposited on carbon nanofibers improve fuel cell efficiency

Improved platinum catalytic utilization has been achieved by creating an open support structure based on aligned carbon nanofibers (CNFs) attached to carbon loaded carbon cloth electrodes [known as gas diffusion layer (GDL)]. The nickel catalyst used to initiate the CNFs growth; the CNFs themselves and the 5 nm Pt nanoaggregates were deposited sequentially in the same low pressure plasma reactor. This oriented catalyst structure was incorporated into a membrane electrode assembly and tested with and without CNFs and on carbon paper or GDL. The performance of the fuel cells based on CNFs and GDL was better over the entire range of operating current. (C) 2007 American Institute of Physics.