Abstract:
This research studied the eletrodeposition of PtCo alloys onto the carbon cloth in different plating baths. The effect of the plating bath including a type of the supporting electrolytes (H2SO4, Na2SO4 and NaCl), solution pH and concentrations of Pt (0.0040.01 M) and Co (0.10.2 M) salts used in the plating baths on the composition and morphology of the PtCo alloys had been investigated. The Electrodeposit was carried out using the direct current (DC) at the current densities of 10 and 20 mA cm-2. The aim was to produce PtCo alloys having the Pt:Co composition range of this study as wide as possible (from 0 to 100 %Pt) in order to apply to various applications including fuel cells. The pH of the plating baths was found to have a little effect on the composition of the PtCo alloys deposited where PtCo compositions changed only ~7% when the pH of the plating bath was changed from their natural pH to 2.6. The type of the supporting electrolyte was found to play the vital role on broadening the composition range of PtCo deposited alloys. When NaCl was used as the supporting electrolyte, the Pt:Co ratios of the alloys deposited were significantly broader than those prepared from other two supporting electrolytes. The compositions of PtCo alloy catalysts produced in NaCl consisted of Pt78Co22, Pt55Co45, Pt45Co55, Pt24Co76, Pt21Co79, Pt13Co87, Pt11Co89, Pt10Co90 and Pt8Co92. Pt8Co92 had the highest electrochemical active surface area (1443 m2 gPt-1) compared to those of PtCo alloys having other compositions including pure Pt (743 m2 gPt-1). Based on the electrocatalytic reaction study towards oxygen reduction reaction (ORR), PtCo catalysts at all compositions had a direct 4 electron pathway for the ORR and Pt78Co22 yielded the highest specific kinetic current density (131.53 μA m-2) which was higher than that of pure Pt catalyst (105.67 μA m-2).