Low-cost graphite as durable support for pt-based cathode electrocatalysts for proton exchange membrane based fuel cells

Proton exchange membrane fuel cell (PEMFC) technology has reached pre-commercial viability, but their insufficient durability acts as a major roadblock in its full-fledged utilization. It has been well established that the issue of durability is majorly due to the corrosion of carbon support used for Pt. Therefore, a search for low-cost and robust alternative support is highly desirable. In this paper, different graphite (and graphene) materials as durable support for Pt-based electrocatalyst are investigated. We followed the top-down approach where a fully graphitized support is mildly wet-milled and surface-treated to give a sufficient surface modification for improved Pt deposition on these supports. All the graphite-supported Pt samples showed better durability than that of state-of-the-art commercial electrocatalysts. Considering both activity and durability the best catalyst among the investigated samples showed a comparable mass specific activity (MSA) of 0.186 A/mg and significantly higher durability (70%) after 7500 stress cycles. For HiSpec9100 and BASF commercial electrocatalysts, the normalized ESA retention value after 7500 stress cycles was 40% and 47%, respectively.