A Durable RuO₂-Carbon-Supported Pt Catalyst for PEFCs: A Cause and Effect Study

As Polymer Electrolyte Fuel Cells (PEFCs) are nearing the acceptable performance level for automotive and stationary applications, the focus on the research is shifting more and more toward enhancing their durability that still remains a major concern in their commercial acceptability. Hydrous ruthenium oxide (RuO 2 ) is a promising material for pseudocapacitors due to its high stability, high specific-capacitance and rapid faradaic-reaction. Incorporation of carbon-supported RuO 2 (RuO 2 /C) to platinum (Pt) is found to ameliorate both stability and catalytic activity of fuel cell cathodes that exhibit higher performance and durability in relation to Pt/C cathodes as evidenced by cell polarization, impedance and cyclic voltammetry data. The degradation in performance of Pt-RuO 2 /C cathodes is found to be only ∼8% after 10000 accelerated stress test (AST) cycles as against ∼60% for Pt/C cathodes after 7000 AST cycles under similar conditions. These data are in conformity with the Electrochemical Surface Area and impedance results. Interestingly, Pt-RuO 2 /C cathodes can withstand more than 10000 AST cycles with only a nominal loss in their performance. Studies on catalytic electrodes with X-ray diffraction, transmission electron microscopy and cross-sectional field-emission scanning electron microscopy reflect that incorporation of RuO 2 to Pt helps mitigating aggregation of Pt particles and improves its stability during long-term operation of PEFCs.