Electrochemical catalytic behavior for platinum functionalized TiO ² nanotube arrays in PEM fuel cells

Conventional carbon electrode supports for platinum used in proton exchange membrane (PEM) fuel cell assemblies have issues related to carbon corrosion at typical cell operating and transient conditions. This corrosion gives rise to the evolution of greenhouse gases such as CO₂, eventually degrading the carbon support and causing a loss of the catalyst specific area necessary to achieve the desired electrochemical performance. In this study, preliminary results are presented for Pt-functionalized TiO₂ nanotube arrays as cathode catalyst supports for PEM fuel cells. The electrochemically synthesized TiO₂ nanotube arrays were functionalized by different weight % of Pt via a solution-based approach using a dilute aqueous salt solution of hexachloroplatanic acid. Electron-beam based characterization techniques were used to study the structural and morphological features of the as-synthesized TiO₂ nanotube arrays and functionalized Pt/TiO₂ nanotube arrays. The electrochemical performance of the functionalized TiO₂ nanotube arrays was studied by using cyclic voltammetry.