Electrophoretic deposition of carbon-supported octahedral Pt–Ni alloy nanoparticle catalysts for cathode in polymer electrolyte membrane fuel cells

Abstract The advanced electrochemical catalytic activity for oxygen reduction reaction (ORR) based on the octahedral Pt–Ni alloyed catalyst has been demonstrated. However, a means of fabricating catalyst electrodes for use in PEMFCs that is cost-effective, scalable, and maintains the high activity of Pt–Nialloy/C has remained out of reach. Electrophoretic deposition (EPD) is a colloidal production process that has a history of successful deployment at the industrial scale. Here, we report on the facile preparation of an effective and active cathode consisting of Pt–Ni alloy loaded on the carbon cloth substrate using the electrophoretic deposition (EPD) technique, in which the optimum applied voltages and suspension pH are systematically investigated to obtain the highly porous Pt–Nialloy/C catalyst electrode. In a half cell test, the EPD-made Pt–Nialloy/C catalyst electrodes fabricated at 45 V and in a solution with a pH of 9.0 yields the best performances. On the other, as an active cathode, the EPD-made Pt–Nialloy/C electrodes deliver a superior performance in single cell test, with the maximum power density reaches 7.16 W/mgPt, ∼28.1% higher than that of the spray-made Pt/C conventional electrode. The outperformance is attributed to the significantly higher porosity and surface roughness of the EPD-made electrode.