Direct electrodeposition of graphene and platinum based alloys-analysis by SEM/EDX

Abstract

A novel, green and controllable approach was successfully made for the electrochemical synthesis of a composite coating made up from Electrochemically Reduced Graphene (ERGN) and Pt-based alloys using pulse power supply. The graphene were electrodeposited on carbon paper from graphite powder, anionic surfactant and sodium dodecyl sulfate which assists electrochemical exfoliation. Herein, Pt and PtCo were directly electrodeposited on graphene. The core-shell structured Cu/Pt, Ni/Pt, PdCu/Pt, NiW/Pt and FeNi/Pt alloys were prepared by a two-step method, in which the core Cu, Ni, PdCu, NiW and FeNi were first electrodeposited on the surface of the graphene. Shortly thereafter, one-step electrochemical displacement of Pt with core alloys electrodeposited on ERGN, was proposed to fabricate graphene-Pt based alloy coatings. This is the first report on electrochemical deposition/displacement of Pt based alloys on graphene and the coatings were characterized by HRSEM and the elemental analysis by EDX for the catalyst coated materials. The utilization of the platinum for efficient. Polymer Electrolyte Membrane (PEM) fuel cells was achieved by the use of graphene/carbon composites as catalyst support. The influences of the graphene/carbon support type on the fuel cell performance were analysed using Amrel electronic load.