Jennarong Jaikaung. Synthesis and characterization of silver and silver alloy on carbon supported catalysts using sodium borohydride and formic acid solution method for fuel cell. Master Degree(Applied Chemistry). Academic Resources and Information Technology LPRU. : Academic Resources and Information Technology LPRU, 2019.
Synthesis and characterization of silver and silver alloy on carbon supported catalysts using sodium borohydride and formic acid solution method for fuel cell
Abstract:
This research was focused on the synthesis of 20% silver (Ag) and alloy catalysts on carbon Vulcan XC-72 supporter for proton exchange membrane fuel cell (PEMFC) and direct ethanol fuel cell (DEFC) cathode using sodium borohydride (NaBH4) and formic acid (HCOOH) solution method. Herein, the ratio of silver sources and other metal source in 1:1 by weight. The obtained catalysts were characterized by X-ray diffraction (XRD), scanning electron microscopy (SEM), and transmission electron microscopy (TEM), and investigated the electro-activity performance on single cell testing. From the XRD and TEM results, confirmed the only four catalytic products of the Ag metal, AgPt alloy, silver (1) oxide (Ag2O) and silver copper (I) oxide (AgxCu2-xO) were formed. The other silver alloys were not obtained due to the different of reduction potential and those metals likely act as the electron donor, although, the EDS results confirmed the compositions of them in amorphous phase. The AgxCu2-xO/C catalyst was synthesized under NaBH4 solution method when using the equal amount of silver and copper nitrate. While the catalytic AgPt/C can be formed easily under both reduction methods, due to the high reduction potential of Pt. Therefore, the particle size of the catalytic AgPt/C under NaBH4 solution method was observed in smallest size about 4.71+1.03 nm and selected for the catalytic PEMFC and DEFC cathode testing. Surprisingly, it showed higher power density than other catalysts were 14.68 and 1.26 W/cm2.g(M), respectively.
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