Polymer supports for low-temperature fuel cell catalysts

Due to their high accessible surface area, low resistance and high stability, conducting polymers have been investigated as carbon-substitute supports for fuel cell catalysts. The main reason for incorporating metallic particles into porous polymeric matrixes is to increase the specific area of these materials and thereby improve the catalytic efficiency. Polymer-supported metal particles also present higher tolerance to poisoning due to the adsorption of CO species, in comparison to the serious problem of poisoning of bulk and carbon-supported metals. Moreover, conducting polymers are not only electron conducting, but also proton conducting materials, so they can replace Nafion in the catalyst layer of fuel cell electrodes and provide enhanced performance. This paper provides a review of the state-of-the-art in the development of metal/polymer composites as electrode materials for low-temperature fuel cells.