RESUMO
Support materials are of great interest in order to improve the activity and stability of the polymer electrolyte membrane fuel cell (PEMFC) catalysts. Metal oxides have been reported as promising support materials due to their excellent mechanical resistance and high stability against corrosion emerging at acidic and oxidative environment. In this study, high (250 m2/g) and low (45 m2/g) surface area mesoporous TiO2 and high (220 m2/g) and low (30 m2/g) surface area mesoporous Al2O3 were investigated as an alternate cathode catalyst support materials for PEMFCs. These semiconducting TiO2 and Al2O3 metal oxides were combined with the carbon black (Vulcan XC 72) at different mass ratios in order to preserve electrical conductivity of catalyst support a certain extent. Pt and TiO2/C and Pt and Al2O3/C catalysts were prepared by means of Pt reduction on support materials via microwave irradiation technique. The as-prepared catalysts were characterized with some physicochemical and electrochemical analyses. The results reveal that two surface areas TiO2 and Al2O3 support materials differ from each other in terms of fuel cell performance and high surface area TiO2/C (25:75) hybrid supported Pt catalyst gave the best performance.
