Synthesis of platinum–polyaniline composite, its evaluation as a performance boosting interphase in the electrode assembly of proton exchange membrane fuel cell

Platinum formed on polyaniline (PANi) is used as the interlayer between porous gas diffusion layer and the catalyst layer with the aim to reduce the thickness of the ordinary gas diffusion layer and provide a performance boosting electrostatic layer. The doping tendency of PANi is utilized to incorporate platinum(IV) ion in its matrix by chemisorption followed by its reduction to metallic platinum. Platinum is deposited on polyaniline by a simple wet chemistry method. PANi is prepared by the chemical oxidative polymerization of aniline by ammonium persulphate while Pt deposition on PANi is achieved by a phase transfer method (water–toluene) to yield Pt nanoparticles on PANi. The composite is characterized by XRD, Scanning electron microscopy (SEM) with energy dispersive X-ray analysis (EDX), IR spectroscopy, cyclic voltammetry (CV), AC impedance studies, density and conductivity measurements. The Pt/PANi composite is assessed in the proton exchange membrane fuel cell (PEMFC) using H2/O2 gases at ambient pressure. The performance of the PEMFC with Pt/PANi composite interphase on cathode side of the gas diffusion layer (GDL) shows improvement at high current densities which is attributed to the increased capacitative current of Pt/PANi layer in the presence of O2 thereby improving the kinetics of subsequent reduction of O2.