Investigation of tungsten-carbide-oxideas the anode catalysts supports for the proton exchange membrane fuel cells

A significant research efforts are directed towards the development of compact energy supply devices, so-called stacks of fuel cells, which might be located near or at the point of energy consumption. For widespread use, the most practical are fuel cells with proton exchange membrane, which produce clean electricity, heat and water, at low temperatures. The price of the catalyst limits the mass production and large-scale utilization of fuel cells. Within our research, non-stoichiometric tungsten-carbide-oxide (WxCyOz) were developed as support for catalysts based on PtRu for PEM fuel cells. The conductivity, morphology and structure of the synthesized catalysts were investigated. Cyclic voltammetry, linear scan voltammetry and rotating disk electrode voltammetry were used to determine performance of obtained PtRu/WxCyOz catalysts. Special attention was given to the analysis of CO poisoning. The catalyst with the best performance (30% PtRu/WxCyOz) has higher number of active sites for HOR and the highest interfacial region which contributes the improved CO tolerance, in relation to the other tested catalysts. By testing this catalyst as an anode catalyst in a single PEM fuel cell, a significantly lower power drop was obtained (16,3%) compared to a single fuel cell that uses commercial catalysts (35,3%). These results highlight the potential of PtRu/WxCyOz catalysts in mitigating performance degradation caused by CO poisoning in PEM fuel cells