Synthesis of Graphene Based Non-Noble Metal Electro-Catalyst for Fuel Cell Applications /

Abstract

Energy is considered to be a vital element for the economic growth and development of any country in the world. During the last few decades much attention is given to the alternative energy resources because conventional power generation is main cause of global warming. There are many alternative energy harnessing technologies including fuel cells. Fuel cells converts the chemical energy of the fuel into electrical energy by producing heat and water as by product. In the family of fuel cell, direct methanol fuel cell is considered very important because of methanol fuel. Compared with hydrogen methanol is abundant and easily transported liquid fuel. It has been observed that major problems associated with methanol fuel cells are methanol cross over and slow anode kinetics. By developing new material as anode catalyst reaction kinetics of the fuel cell can be improved. Two major challenges associated with anode catalysts are cost and performance analysis which are very important for the successful operation of DMFC. In DMFC mostly platinum and alloy catalyst are used for the electrooxidation of methanol. Several problems are associated with platinum base catalysts including higher cost and CO adsorption on the surface of the platinum. In order to overcome these challenges researchers are developing new effective and low cost electro-catalyst as a substitute of Pt-based catalysts for direct methanol fuel cells (DMFCs). Due to their oxidation properties nickel and cobalt show excellent electroanalytic properties. Both nickel and cobalt are popular transition metals have wide application as electro catalysts in fuel cells. Graphene is widely used carbon support material in fuel cell due to its high surface area and excellent conductivity. Currently the research is focused to develop non-noble metals electro-catalyst to replace the expensive noble metal electro-catalyst. However non noble metals such as Ni, Co, Pb, and W have limited catalytic potential. Electrocatalytic properties of these metals can be enhanced manifolds by depositing them on graphene sheets. In the present work we synthesized Ni/graphene and Co/graphene nanoparticle by simple solution synthesis method. The synthesized catalysts were characterized by X-ray diffraction, scanning electron microscopy and EDX. The electrocatalytic potential of the synthesized catalyst for methanol oxidation was investigated by cyclic voltammetry.