Comparative Study of Platinum Nanoparticle Deposition on TiO 2 /BP and SnO 2 /BP Nanocomposites for the Oxygen Reduction Reaction

For further commercialization of the proton exchange membrane fuel cell technology an improvement of the stability of commonly used Pt-based oxygen reduction reaction (ORR) catalysts is necessary. In this study SnO 2 - and TiO 2 -carbon nanocomposites using high surface area Black Pearls (BP) and commercial metal oxide nanoparticles were investigated as support materials for Pt. Homogenously distributed 40 wt.% Pt catalysts were obtained. When using TiO 2 -BP support an outstanding intrinsic activity but no stability improvement was observed, whereas the use of SnO 2 -BP as Pt support lead to a slightly lower ORR activity but an increased catalyst stability.