High performance carbon-supported IrRu alloy catalyst for the in an alkaline anion-exchange membrane fuel cell

Abstract

The alkaline anion-exchange membrane fuel cell (AAEMFC) is characterized by an excellent efficiency due to the low reaction activation energy of its cathode. However, the slow hydrogen oxidation reaction (HOR) at the anode degrades its performance. Herein, to improve the HOR kinetics, carbon-supported IrRu of varying compositions are prepared using the polyol process. According to spectroscopic analyses, the IrRu catalysts exhibit strong electronic interactions between Ir and Ru. In particular, before and after the accelerated stress stability cycles, the HOR activities of IrRu2/C are 2.4 and 3.8 times higher than that of the commercial Pt/C catalyst, respectively. Therefore, these results demonstrate the excellent HOR activity and catalytic stability of IrRu2/C. The membrane electrode assembly tests conducted to validate the catalytic effect reveal that the performance (800 mA cm(-2)) of IrRu2/C as an anode catalyst is 4.1 times higher than that of Pt/C (195 mA cm(-2)) at 0.6 V. The IrRu2/C catalyst proposed in this study is a suitable replacement for the Pt/C catalyst and an excellent HOR catalyst for cost-effective AAEMFC applications. (C) 2021 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.