Polybenzimidazole-modified carbon nanotubes as a support material for platinum-based high-temperature proton exchange membrane fuel cell electrocatalysts

Abstract We fabricate polybenzimidazole (PBI) wrapped carbon nanotubes (MWCNTs) as support material for platinum-based fuel cell electrocatalyst. With the aid of microwave-assisted polyol reduction, we obtain very fine platinum (Pt) nanoparticles on PBI/MWCNT support while reducing the amount of Pt waste during synthesis. Cyclic voltammetry (CV) concludes that Pt-PBI/MWCNT has 43.0 m2 g−1 of electrochemically active surface area (ECSA) to catalyze hydrogen oxidation. Furthermore, after the 1000th cycle, Pt-PBI/MWCNT preserves almost 80% of its maximum ECSA, meaning that Pt-PBI/MWCNT is much more durable than the Pt/MWCNT and commercial Pt/C. High-temperature proton exchange membrane fuel cell (HT-PEMFC) performance tests are conducted under H2/Air conditions at the temperatures ranging from 150 °C to 180 °C. Nevertheless, tests conclude that the maximum power density values of the Pt-PBI/MWCNT are found inferior to the Pt/C at all temperatures (e.g., 47 vs. 62 mW cm−2 at 180 °C), suggesting that some balance between durability and performance has to be taken into consideration.