Effect of nitrogen doping amount on the activity of commercial electrocatalyst used in PEM fuel cells

Abstract

The amount of nitrogen doping has attracted attention recently because it provides additional catalytically active sites in catalysts. In this study, nitrogen-doped (N-doped) catalysts were synthesized by mixing melamine as a nitrogen source and commercial Tanaka catalyst with 67% Pt loading in different amounts of melamine. After nitrogen doping, N-doped catalysts were characterized by FTIR, XRD, elemental analysis, contact angle measurement, and PEM fuel cell performance tests. Change in the nitrogen amount in the catalyst resulted in an increase in the PEM fuel cell performance which can be attributed to the significant change in contact angle and so in the hydrophobicity of the catalysts.