Corrosion Stability of Nanosize Pd/C, PdCo/C, and PdCoCr/C Catalytic Systems in Acidic Media for Fuel Cell Cathodes

M. R. Tarasevich^a, D. V. Novikov^b, G. V. Zhutaeva^a, V. A. Bogdanovskaya^a, L. A. Reznikova^a,
N. A. Kapustina^a, and V. V. Batrakov^b

^a Frumkin Institute of Physical Chemistry and Electrochemistry, Russian Academy of Sciences, Moscow, Russia

^b Moscow Pedagogical State University, Moscow, Russia

e-mail: Этот e-mail защищен от спам-ботов. Для его просмотра в вашем браузере должна быть включена поддержка Java-script

Received May 28, 2008

Abstract — An express method for determining the corrosion stability of palladium-based cathodic catalytic systems was developed. The method consists of cycling the electrode potential with a thin catalyst layer in 0.5M H₂SO₄ in the range of potentials of the fuel cell operation and a subsequent comparison of the characteristics of catalytic systems (specific surface area and activity in the oxygen reduction reaction) before and after the corrosion action. The suggested method was used to characterize the corrosion behavior of the Pd/C commercial catalyst, as well as the PdCo/C and PdCoCr/C catalysts synthesized at the Institute of Physical Chemistry and Electrochemistry, Russian Academy of Sciences. According to the XRD data, they correspond to systems with a high level of alloy formation. It is shown that the PdCo/C and PdCoCr/C catalysts are considerably more stable towards corrosion action than 20% Pd/C (E-TEK). The results were compared with the stability data obtained using a chronoamperometric method.