Highly active and durable fuel cell electro-catalyst with hybrid support

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-9680158-B2
Application number	US-201314397628-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Apr 29, 2013
Priority date	Apr 30, 2012
Publication date	Jun 13, 2017
Grant date	Jun 13, 2017

Abstract

A fuel cell includes: (1) an anode; (2) a cathode; and (3) an electrolyte disposed between the anode and the cathode. At least one of the anode and the cathode includes an electro-catalyst dispersed on a hybrid support, the hybrid support includes a first, carbon-based support and a second support different from the first, carbon-based support, and a weight percentage of the second support is at least 10% relative to a combined weight of the first, carbon-based support and the second support.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A fuel cell, comprising:
an anode;
a cathode; and
an electrolyte disposed between the anode and the cathode,
wherein at least one of the anode or the cathode includes a hybrid support and an electro-catalyst dispersed on the hybrid support, the hybrid support includes a first, carbon-based support and a second support different from the first, carbon-based support, the first, carbon-based support includes sheets of reduced graphene oxide, the second support includes particles that are disposed between the sheets of reduced graphene oxide, and a weight percentage of the second support is at least 10% relative to a combined weight of the first, carbon-based support and the second support.

2. The fuel cell of claim 1 , wherein the second support includes carbon black particles.

3. The fuel cell of claim 1 , wherein the weight percentage of the second support is at least 30% relative to the combined weight of the first, carbon-based support and the second support.

4. The fuel cell of claim 1 , wherein the electro-catalyst includes precious metal nanocrystals.

5. The fuel cell of claim 1 , wherein a weight percentage of the electro-catalyst is in the range of 15% to 45%, relative to a combined weight of the electro-catalyst and the hybrid support.

6. The fuel cell of claim 1 , wherein the at least one of the anode or the cathode has a specific activity that is at least 0.18 mA/cm 2 .

7. The fuel cell of claim 1 , wherein, after 20,000 cycles, the at least one of the anode or the cathode retains at least 75% of an initial electrochemical surface area.

8. An electrode for a fuel cell, comprising:
a hybrid support; and
an electro-catalyst dispersed on the hybrid support,
wherein the hybrid support includes a primary support of reduced graphene oxide and a secondary support of a carbon-based material different from reduced graphene oxide, and a weight ratio of the secondary support to the primary support is in the range of 3:7 to 7:3.

9. The electrode of claim 8 , wherein the carbon-based material is selected from carbon black, carbon nanotubes, and pyrolytic graphite.

10. The electrode of claim 8 , wherein the electro-catalyst is dispersed on the hybrid support as nanocrystals, and at least a majority by number of the nanocrystals are attached on the primary support.

11. The electrode of claim 8 , wherein the weight ratio of the secondary support to the primary support is in the range of 2:3 to 3:2.

12. The electrode of claim 8 , wherein the electrode has a mass activity that is at least 0.1 A/mg.

13. The electrode of claim 8 , wherein the electrode has a specific electrochemical surface area that is at least 48 m 2 /g.

14. A manufacturing method of an electrode for a fuel cell, comprising:
combining an electro-catalyst with a primary support to form an electro-catalyst-loaded primary support; and
combining the electro-catalyst-loaded primary support with a secondary support to form a composite of the electro-catalyst, the primary support, and the secondary support,
wherein one of the primary support and the secondary support includes reduced graphene oxide, and another one of the primary support and the secondary support includes a support material different from reduced graphene oxide and selected from carbon black, carbon nanotubes, and pyrolytic graphite.

15. The manufacturing method of claim 14 , wherein a weight ratio of the secondary support to the primary support is in the range of 3:7 to 7:3.

Assignees

• Univ California

Inventors

• Huang Yu
• Li Yujing

Classifications

• Y02E60/50

  Fuel cells · CPC title

• H01M4/921 Primary

  Alloys or mixtures with metallic elements · CPC title

• H01M4/926

  on carbon or graphite · CPC title

• H01M2008/1095

  Fuel cells with polymeric electrolytes · CPC title

• H01M4/8605

  Porous electrodes · CPC title