Palladium Nanoparticles on Nickel for Direct Methanol Solid Oxide Fuel Cell Catalyst

Direct Methanol Solid Oxide Fuel Cell (DMSOFCs) has been drawn comparable attentions in fuel cell society for its fuel flexibility and high energy density of methanol compared to that of hydrogen. However, carbon coking and carbon monoxide poisoning occur due to usage of methanol as fuel, which hinder electrode kinetics and eventually cause performance degradation. Therefore, demand of high performance catalyst with excellent stability has been risen for the widespread usage of DMSOFC. To these days, bimetallic Pt-Ru is known as the best DMSOFC catalyst for its superior methanol oxidation capability. However, high scarcity of Pt and Ru hinders the widespread commercialization of DMSOFC for its expensive price. Recently, Ni has been considered as promising alternative for Pt-Ru. Price of Ni is far lower than that of Pt or Ru, and Ni has respectable methanol oxidation ability. During electrochemical oxidation of methanol, however, carbon tends to deposited on the surface of Ni, which leads performance and stability degradation of Ni catalyst. In this study, we deposited the palladium nanoparticles on the surface of Ni in order to obtain bimetallic Pd/Ni catalyst for DMSOFC application. Pd nanoparticles were deposited by DC magnetron sputtering and atomic layer deposition. DMSOFC with Pd/Ni catalyst were analyzed by current-voltage measurement and electrochemical impedance spectroscopy at the temperature range of 300 - 450 ºC. Pd/Ni catalyst showed enhanced performance and stability compared to bare Ni catalyst. Detailed analysis of experiment will be discussed in the presentation.