Enhanced electrocatalytic performance of functionalized carbon nanotube electrodes for oxygen reduction in proton exchange membrane fuel cells
IR@CECRI: CSIR-Central Electrochemical Research Institute, Karaikudi
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| Title |
Enhanced electrocatalytic performance of functionalized carbon nanotube electrodes for oxygen reduction in proton exchange membrane fuel cells
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| Creator |
Ramaiyan, K.
Unni, B. Sreekumar, K. Vijayamohanan, K.Pillai |
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| Subject |
Fuel Cells
Nanotechnology Electrochemical Power Sources |
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| Description |
Although nitrogen doped CNTs (N-CNTs) are considered a promising alternative to platinized
carbon for the oxygen reduction reaction (ORR) in polymer electrolyte membrane fuel cells
Q2 (PEMFCs), the origin of the enhanced ORR activity with N-CNTs is not clear at present. Among
several plausible reasons, the exposure of edge plane and creation of impurity band/surface states
near the Fermi level are considered as major causes behind the catalytic activity. However, CNTs
without nitrogen doping are not known to catalyze the ORR. In this work, we study the ORR
activity of functionalized carbon nanotubes with different functional groups, such as sulfonic acid
and phosphonic acid, in order to understand the role of surface functionalities in catalyzing the
reaction. Functionalized CNTs show significantly enhanced activity towards the ORR, while CNTs without such surface functional groups do not reveal any such special ORR activity. Linear sweep voltammetry experiments with different rotation rates show diffusion controlled limiting current values for functionalized CNTs, and the ‘n’ values derived from Koutecky-Levich plots are 3.3 and 1.7 for S-MWCNTs and P-MWCNTs, respectively. This work demonstrates the ORR activity of functionalized MWCNTs, which opens up new strategies for electrocatalyst
design in PEMFCs.
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| Publisher |
Royal Society of Chemistry
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| Date |
2011
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| Type |
Article
PeerReviewed |
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| Format |
application/pdf
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| Identifier |
http://cecri.csircentral.net/757/1/138-2011.pdf
Ramaiyan, K. and Unni, B. and Sreekumar, K. and Vijayamohanan, K.Pillai (2011) Enhanced electrocatalytic performance of functionalized carbon nanotube electrodes for oxygen reduction in proton exchange membrane fuel cells. Physical Chemistry Chemical Physics, 13 (21). pp. 10312-10317. ISSN 1463-9076 |
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| Relation |
http://www.rsc.org/pccp
http://cecri.csircentral.net/757/ |
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