Platinum/carbon intergated electrodes for direct methanol fuel cells

Summary form only given. Direct methanol fuel cells (DMFCs) are expected to be promising power sources^1,2. However, one of the main barriers for the commercial is the high cost and slow kinetics of the catalyst (e.g. platinum), which is usually used as the catalysts both in the anode and cathode. In this respect, the R&D directions of DMFCs catalyst mainly focus on improving the performance and increasing the utilization of Platinum (Pt). Syntheses of new carbon nanomaterial as catalyst support have proved to be an efficient work. In this work, intergrated electrodes for DMFCs by sputtering Pt nanoparticles onto the surface of vertically aligned carbon nanofibers (VACNFs) and carbon nanowalls directly grown on carbon paper (CNWs) have been prepared. Both electrodes were characterization by electrochemical measurements to evaluted their catalytic activity of methanol oxidation.