Fabrication and electrochemical characterization of Pt-Pd impregnated nanocomposite polymer electrolyte membranes for high concentration DMFCs

Bimetallic Pt-Pd impregnated nanocomposite polymer electrolyte membranes were prepared and the influence of Pd on Pt was evaluated towards a single cell performance. The fabricated membranes were characterised by X-ray Diffraction (XRD) and Field-Emission Scanning Electron Microscopy (FESEM) accompanied with Energy Dispersive X-ray (EDX) spectroscopy for identifying the structural and morphological characteristics, respectively. It was observed that the particle size of the bimetallic particle increased with the increase in Pd content; the bimetallic particles were uniformly deposited in a closely packed structure on the membrane surface. The performance of direct methanol fuel cells (DMFC) with normal membrane electrode assembly (MEA) and Pt-Pd impregnated nanocomposite with various compositions were studied for different methanol concentrations. Pt-Pd nanocomposite MEA with 76.91:23.09 of atomic ratio exhibited an optimal performance with the maximum power density of 52.5 mW cm^-2. The result was benchmarked with MEA using commercially available Pt/C catalyst.