Truong Van Men, Duong Ngoc Bich, Yang Hsiharng
School of Engineering and Technology, Tra Vinh University, Tra Vinh City 87000, Tra Vinh Province, Vietnam.
Graduate Institute of Precision Engineering, National Chung Hsing University, 145 Xingda Road, South District, Taichung City 402, Taiwan.
Materials (Basel). 2020 Nov 26;13(23):5370. doi: 10.3390/ma13235370.
Anion exchange membrane fuel cells (AEMFCs) are attractive alternatives to proton exchange membrane fuel cells due to their ability to employ nonprecious metals as catalysts, reducing the cost of AEMFC devices. This paper presents an experimental exploration of the carbon support material effects on AEMFC performance. The silver (Ag) nanoparticles supported on three types of carbon materials including acetylene carbon (AC), carbon black (CB), and multiwalled carbon nanotube (MWCNT)-Ag/AC, Ag/CB, and Ag/MWCNT, respectively-were prepared using the wet impregnation method. The silver loading in the catalysts was designed as 60 wt.% during the synthesizing process, which was examined using thermogravimetric analysis. The elemental composition of the prepared Ag/AC, Ag/CB, and Ag/MWCNT catalysts was confirmed using X-ray diffraction analysis. The nanoparticle size of Ag attached on carbon particles or carbon nanotubes, as observed by scanning electron microscopy (SEM), was around 50 nm. For the performance tests of a single AEMFC, the obtained results indicate that the maximum power density using Ag/MWCNT as the cathode catalyst (356.5 mW·cm) was higher than that using Ag/AC (329.3 mW·cm) and Ag/CB (256.6 mW·cm). The better cell performance obtained using a MWCNT support can be ascribed to the higher electrical conductivity and the larger electrochemical active surface area calculated from cyclic voltammetry measurements.
阴离子交换膜燃料电池（AEMFC）因其能够使用非贵金属作为催化剂，从而降低了AEMFC装置的成本，成为质子交换膜燃料电池有吸引力的替代品。本文对碳载体材料对AEMFC性能的影响进行了实验探索。分别采用湿浸渍法制备了负载在乙炔碳（AC）、炭黑（CB）和多壁碳纳米管（MWCNT）三种碳材料上的银（Ag）纳米颗粒，即Ag/AC、Ag/CB和Ag/MWCNT。在合成过程中，将催化剂中的银负载量设计为60 wt.%，并通过热重分析进行检测。使用X射线衍射分析确认了制备的Ag/AC、Ag/CB和Ag/MWCNT催化剂的元素组成。通过扫描电子显微镜（SEM）观察，附着在碳颗粒或碳纳米管上的Ag纳米颗粒尺寸约为50 nm。对于单电池AEMFC的性能测试，所得结果表明，以Ag/MWCNT作为阴极催化剂时的最大功率密度（356.5 mW·cm）高于以Ag/AC（329.3 mW·cm）和Ag/CB（256.6 mW·cm）作为阴极催化剂时的最大功率密度。使用MWCNT载体获得的更好的电池性能可归因于其较高的电导率以及根据循环伏安法测量计算出的较大的电化学活性表面积。
