Preparation of Pt-Co nanoparticles by galvanostatic pulse electrochemical codeposition on in situ electrochemical reduced graphene nanoplates based carbon paper electrode for oxygen reduction reaction in proton exchange membrane fuel cell

•In this work graphene nanoplates (GNP) with an ideal matrix were obtained.•Uniform Pt-Co nanoparticles without agglomeration were produced.•A significant improvement in the utilization efficiency by Pt-Co was observed.•Pt-Co/GNP/GDL electrode showed less overpotential compared to Pt/C/GDL electrode.•Pt-Co/GNP/GDL exhibited higher mass activity peak current for ORR. Nanocomposite films of Pt-Co nanoparticles deposited on graphene nanoplate based gas diffusion layer electrode are fabricated via an electrochemical route involving a series of electrochemical process. Pt-Co nanoparticles of 11.37nm in average size are prepared by galvanostatic codeposition in 0.5M NaCl at PH of 2.5 at 300mAcm−2 on the surface of in situ reduced graphene nanoplates on carbon paper. The topographical features, structure, morphology and composition of the prepared film samples are characterized by Atomic Force microscopy, Raman Spectroscopy, FTIR analysis, X-ray Diffraction, FESEM and EDS. At the same time, the catalytic activities of prepared electrodes for the oxygen reduction reaction are evaluated through cyclic voltammetry, linear sweep voltammetry and chronoamperometry and electrochemical impedance spectroscopy measurements. Raman spectroscopy measurements confirmed the graphitic structure of the produced graphene nanoplates. The nanoparticles in the film were observed to be uniform spherical objects and well distributed. Catalytic properties of Pt-Co/GNP/GDL electrode were compared with Pt/C/GDL using half cell polarization measurements based on both mass activity and specific activity. The as prepared Pt-Co/GNP/GDL electrode exhibits high catalytic activity for the ORR, which may be attributed to structural changes caused by alloying and the high specific surface area of graphene nanoplates catalyst support. The mass activity peak current is found to be as high as 728.25mAmgPt−1.