Abstract
In this work, we have prepared platinum catalyst by various methods, investigated fuel cell performance and compared performance with commercially available $20\%$ Pt supported on carbon (Pt/C) catalyst. We have found that Pt/C prepared by reduction of chloroplatinic acid in mixed solvent (water+ethylene glycol) gives better performance compared to that produced by reduction of aqueous chloroplatinic acid, which can be attributed to smaller catalyst particle size and lower agglomeration in the mixed solvent. We have also prepared a novel platinum electrocatalyst by depositing platinum on Nafion coated carbon powder and it shows great promise. The performance of electrode prepared using $20\%Pt$ onn Nafion coated carbon mixed with Pt/C was found to be higher than the performance of electrodes using commercially available $20\%$ Pt/C, up to a current density of about $1100mA/cm^2$. The cell voltages obtained were respectively 621 and 603mV, at a current density of: $1000mA/cm^2$, in a single cell using $0.25mgPt/cm^2$ and Nafion 10035 membrane at $80^{\circ}C$ using hydrogen/oxygen reactants at 1 atm pressure.