A Review of the Application and Performance of Carbon Nanotubes in Fuel Cells

Abstract

The fuel cell has the nature of high energy conversion efficiency and low pollutant emission. Carbon nanotubes used for fuel cells can decrease the needs of noble metals which are used for catalyst and improve the performance of fuel cells. The application of carbon nanotubes in fuel cells is summarized and discussed. The following aspects are described in this paper: the method used to reduce the platinum, the effect of carbon nanotubes on the fuel cell, improving the performance of fuel cell catalysts, the interaction between catalyst and carbon nanotube support, and the synthetic conditions of carbon nanotube supported catalyst. We summarize some of the results of previous studies and raise expectations for the microscopic state study of carbon nanotubes in the future.