Electrocatalytic Properties of PdCu Oxygen Reduction for PEM Fuel Cell

Abstract

A study of the oxygen reduction reaction on PdCu electrocatalyst synthesized by a NaBH4 reduction of PdCl2 and CuCl in a THF solution was examined in a 0.5 M H2SO4 electrolyte, at 25 °C. The electrochemical techniques used were cyclic voltammetry (CV) and rotating disc electrode (RDE). The electrocatalyst was characterized by x-ray diffraction (XRD) and scanning electron microscopy (SEM). The physical characterization showed that the method of synthesis allows the formation of spherical agglomerated nanocrystalline particles about 11 nm in size. The PdCu catalyst exhibited high current densities for the ORR compared to that obtained on nanometric Pd catalyst synthesized by the same method.