Improvement of graphene support by heteroatom doping as a support for fuel cell application

In this paper, we have developed an efficient approach to prepare the nitrogen doped graphene supported Pt nanocomposites (Pt/N-G). Nitrogen-doped graphene (N-G) was prepared by pyrolysis of graphene oxide with aniline as nitrogen containing precursor at different temperatures, which led to high and controllable nitrogen contents. Subsequently, the Pt nanoparticles were dispersed over N -G surface by modified chemical polyol reduction process. X-ray powder diffraction, FTIR spectroscopy, Raman spectroscopy, X-ray photoelectron Spectroscopy, and Transmission and scanning electron microscopy (TEM&SEM) were used to characterize the morphology and microstructure of the prepared catalysts. The TEM and elemental mapping images indicate that metal nanoparticles are more uniformly dispersed on the surface of N -doped graphene than other supports; and Pt nanoparticles dispersed without any aggregation. The catalytic activity and durability of the catalysts was evaluated by various electrochemical techniques. Compared to the undoped Pt/rGO and commercial Pt/C catalysts, an enhanced electro catalytic activity was obtained in the case of the Pt/N -rGO with optimized composition and nanostructure. The maximum power density of MEA for Pt/N-rGO was 1.4 times more than that of MEA fabricated by commercial Pt/C 20%.