ELECTROCHEMICAL PERFORMANCE OF NANO-SiC PREPARED IN THERMAL PLASMA revised

Abstract

The possibility of using SiC as support for Pt and employing them as alternate electrodes for fuel cell applications has been examined. Plasma technique and hydrogen reduction method have been employed for the preparation of nano-SiC and Pt/SiC respectively. These materials are characterized by XRD, SEM, EDX and TEM. Powder XRD patterns of SiC and Pt/SiC reveals the existence of β-phase SiC and FCC structure of Pt. SEM and TEM analysis indicates the two dimensional network of SiC chains and spherical shaped Pt particles on SiC support. EDX confirms the presence of Si and C in SiC and Pt, Si and C in Pt/SiC samples. The electrochemical performance of the Pt/SiC was investigated by cyclic voltammetry. Oxygen reduction measurements performed by linear sweep voltammetry indicate that the as-prepared Pt/SiC catalyst exhibited comparable ORR activity with that of commercial Pt/C (E-TEK) catalyst.