Highly Active Carbon Composite Electrocatalysts for PEM Fuel Cells

Abstract

Highly active carbon composite catalysts were developed using a carbon based metal-free catalyst developed at USC as a support through catalyzed pyrolysis followed by chemical post-treatments. Materials characterization studies indicated that the nature of nitrogen functional groups on the carbon surface and the carbon nanostructures play a critical role in the activity and stability. The catalytic activity as high as 2.0 A cm-2 at 0.2 V was obtained for the carbon composite catalyst in the fuel cell, and no irreversible activity loss was observed during stability test.