Importance of clean, sustainable and renewable energy sources are increasing gradually because of either being environmental friendly or being alternative for fossil fuels. Hydrogen energy system will let the utilization of alternative energy sources. Fuel cells are the most suitable energy conversion devices while passing through the hydrogen economy. The cost of the fuel cell systems need to be reduced in order to achieve commercialization of these systems. One of the most important cost items is platinum which is used as catalyst both in anode and cathode sides of the proton exchange membrane (PEM) fuel cells. Not only is the cost of the platinum, but also the limited reservoir of the platinum is a handicap. Therefore, the utilization of the cheap replacements of platinum catalysts will accelerate the process of commercialization. Because of their highly conjugated structure and high chemical stability metalo phthalocyanines have been encouraging electrocatalytic activity for oxygen reduction. Therefore, electrocatalytic activity for oxygen reduction in fuel cells was studied with some metalo phthalocyanines and some positive effects have been observed.
In this study, phthalocyanines of cobalt, iron and nickel were synthesized via phthalic anhydride-urea method and characterized by IR Spectrophotometry, X-Ray Diffractometry and Thermal Gravimetry (TGA). Catalyst materials were prepared by impregnation method such that they contain either 4% cobalt, 4% or 10% iron or 4% nickel phthalocyanines on carbon black (Vulcan XC72) structure. Impregnated catalysts were pyrolyzed at 600oC or 1000oC and cathode electrodes were prepared by these catalysts as well as unpyrolyzed ones by spraying technique. The impregnated catalysts were characterized by scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and pore structures were analyzed by surface area analyzer (by BET and BJH techniques). All of the anode electrodes were prepared by using 20% Pt containing commercial catalyst by the same technique applied for cathode electrodes. A membrane electrode assembly was also prepared by 20% Pt containing commercial catalyst on the cathode electrode. Performance characteristics of the manufactured membrane electrode assemblies were determined by means of a test station, built in Middle East Technical University Chemical Engineering Department, having a 5 cm2 test cell.
The highest performance observed with the commercial membrane electrode assembly was 0.40W/cm2 at 0.5 V. Whereas, the power density obtained from the MEA manufactured at the laboratory having 0.4 mg Pt/cm2 loading both on the anode and cathode was 0.18 W/cm2 at 0.5 V. For the phthalocyanine cathodic MEAs, the highest power reached was 0.04W/cm2 which was obtained from the MEA having a loading of 0.28mg Co/cm2 prepared by using the CoPc/C catalyst pyrolyzed at 1000 oC.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:METU/oai:etd.lib.metu.edu.tr:http://etd.lib.metu.edu.tr/upload/12606494/index.pdf |
| Date | 01 September 2005 |
| Creators | Erkan, Serdar |
| Contributors | Eroglu, Inci |
| Publisher | METU |
| Source Sets | Middle East Technical Univ. |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | M.S. Thesis |
| Format | text/pdf |
| Rights | To liberate the content for public access |
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