Pd-Ti and Pd-Co-Au electrocatalysts as a replacement for platinum for oxygen reduction in proton exchange membrane fuel cells

J.L. FERNÁNDEZ; V. RAGHUVEER; A. MANTHIRAM; A.J. BARD

JOURNAL OF THE AMERICAN CHEMICAL SOCIETY

American Chemical Society

Año: 2005 vol. 127 p. 13100 - 13101

0002-7863

Fuel cells are appealing for a variety of energy needs, but the high materials and manufacturing costs have hampered their commercialization. The limited availability and the high cost of the currently used platinum catalysts, however, pose a serious problem in their practical application. We report here non-platinum electrocatalyst systems, such as Pd-Co-Au and Pd-Ti, that are proposed from simple thermodynamic guidelines and selecting by a rapid screening technique, which show electrochemical performance in proton exchange membrane fuel cells (PEMFC) similar to that found with commercial platinum catalysts. This finding opens up a new avenue to develop potentially less expensive electrocatalysts.