Zhongwei Chen1, Lianbin Xu2, Wenzhen Li3, Mahesh M. Waje4, and Yushan Yan3. (1) University of California, Riverside, A242 Bourns Hall, Chemical Engineering, Riverside, CA 92507, (2) Department of Chemical and Environmental Engineering, University of California, Riverside, CA 92521, (3) Chemical and Environmental Engineering, University of California, Riverside, Bourns Hall A242, Riverside, CA 92521, (4) University of California Riverside, 1122 Linden street, # 105, Riverside, CA 92507
A novel polyaniline nanofiber supported platinum (Pt) electrocatalyst was developed for direct methanol fuel cell (DMFC). Polyaniline nanofibers (PaniNFs) with diameter of 60 nm were synthesized by interfacial polymerization without the need for templates or functional dopants. PaniNFs supported Pt nanocatalysts (Pt/PaniNFs) were prepared by an ethylene glycol (EG) reduction method. Pt nanoparticles deposited on the PaniNFs have a smaller diameter of 1.8 nm (by XRD and TEM) and narrower particle size distributions (by TEM) than Pt nanoparticles (2.3 nm) on carbon balck (Pt/C). The Pt/PaniNFs catalyst shows higher electrochemical active surface area (ECSA) and higher catalytic activity for methanol oxidation reaction (MOR) than that of the Pt/C, which is a promising candidate for DMFC catalyst.