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An efficient way of producing catalytic material containing nanofibers to be used in fuel cell electrodes

Summary

The invention proposed herein offers an in-situ process for the generation of metal nanoparticles supported on polymeric nanofibers. Although there are technologies for the generation of this type of catalytic nanofibers already known in the literature, these methods can only be achieved by additional steps. This novel technology described herein enables synthesis of metallised high surface area nanofibers without any further need of additional processes such as electro deposition, vacuum deposition and selective reducing, thus the dimension of the resulting material is not affected and/or restricted by any other process. Furthermore the carbon nanofibers generated by this process has high catalytic performance. One other advantage of the technology is that the process is not specific to only one kind of catalyst but is applicable to all types of catalyst material precursors. At usable level

Technology Benefits

This technology is an efficient and cost effective in-situ process for the production of metal nanoparticles supported in carbon nanofiber with a smaller fiber diameter. There is no need to synthesize catalytic nanomaterial prior to electrospinning nor any additional precursors rather than the source itself or there is no need to any additional heating cycles. Therefore the dimension of the resulting metal nanoparticles are not restricted by any other means such as the use of the metal/reducer couple, the metal weight percentage on the polymer solution and the heat treatment cycle. This method described herein enables to produce nanofibers with good microscopic distribution of metal particles resulting a high performance catalytic material. Furthermore, by the method of the invention, it is possible to decrease the catalytic material concentration up to 0.02 mg per square centimeter by enhancing catalytic performance which can help to reduce costs.

Goods and Services

Alternative energy production > Fuel cells