Electrocatalysis of oxygen reduction reaction on Nafion/platinum/gas diffusion layer electrode for PEM fuel cell

In this work a new membrane electrode based on Pt-coated Nafion membrane was fabricated. Chemical deposition process was used to coat platinum on Nafion 117 membrane and then Pt-coated Nafion membrane was hot pressed on gas diffusion layer (GDL) to make new membrane electrode. The electrochemical and chemical studies of the Pt-coated Nafions were investigated by electrochemical techniques, X-ray diffraction and scanning electron microscopy. The electrochemical results indicated that as the concentration of H₂PtCl₆ increased, the oxygen reduction reaction rate increased until the concentration was reached where the reduction reaction was limited by the problem of mass transport. The electrochemical results for oxygen reduction reaction showed that the new electrode which prepared by plating Nafion membrane with 0.06 M H₂PtCl₆ in electroless plating solution, has a higher performance than other electrodes. The XRD results showed that the average platinum particle size of the best sample was about 3 nm. The loading of platinum for this electrode was 0.153 mg cm⁻².