Effect of the deposition time on the electrocatalytic activity of Pt/C catalyst electrodes prepared by pulsed electrophoresis deposition method Ganpurev Adilbish a , Jin-Woo Kim a , Hong-Gi Lee b , Yeon-Tae Yu a, * a Division of Advanced Materials Engineering and Research Center for Advanced Materials Development, College of Engineering, Chonbuk National University, Jeonju 561-756, South Korea b Fuel Cell Regional Innovation Center, Woosuk University, Wanju 565-701, South Korea article info Article history: Received 11 November 2012 Received in revised form 8 January 2013 Accepted 9 January 2013 Available online 10 February 2013 Keywords: Platinum catalyst electrode Pulsed electrophoresis deposition Single cell test abstract Pt/C electrodes are prepared by pulsed electrophoresis deposition (PED) from a Pt colloidal solution as a plating bath. The PED is optimized by varying the duty cycle and deposition time in a galvanostatic mode. The catalytic activities of the Pt/C electrodes are evaluated using the cyclic voltammetry technique. The loading amount of the Pt catalyst is controlled by varying the deposition time. Also, a single cell test is carried out using the Pt/C elec- trodes prepared with the PED method as a cathode. In the concentration polarization re- gion (i.e., at 0.4 V), the current density for the Pt/C 10 min electrode is 0.845 A cm 2 , which is higher than the rest of the Pt/C electrodes. Copyright ª 2013, Hydrogen Energy Publications, LLC. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. 1. Introduction The high performance efficiency and low environmental impact of polymer electrolyte membrane fuel cells (PEMFCs) make them favorable prospective alternative energy sources. This fuel cell usually operates at temperatures less than 100  C, and it provides a relatively high current density. Low- temperature operation allows PEMFC to start quickly (less warm-up time) which causes less wear on system compo- nents, resulting in better durability [1e3]. PEMFCs consist of several parts such as membrane electrode assembly (MEA), bipolar plates, and gasket. A MEA consists of anode and cathode catalyst layers, anode and cathode gas diffusion media and a proton-conducting membrane. This MEA takes up about 70% of material cost of PEMFC stack and is the big- gest obstacle to the commercialization of a PEMFC. In addi- tion, the platinum catalyst among elements constituting the MEA takes up the highest portion of price. Thus, the main goal for the development of PEMFCs is to reduce the platinum catalyst loading on the electrodes (both anode and cathode) without causing any performance loss [2,4,5]. Theoretically, all platinum in the catalyst layer should be active for hydrogen oxidation and oxygen reduction reactions. Specifically, the fuel and oxidant must react at the interfacial region between the polymer electrolyte (e.g., Nafion mem- brane) and platinum catalyst, which is a three-phase reaction zone. Here, the electrode should be designed to allow rapid access of the reactants into this zone, and the electrolyte/ catalyst interface must enable the transfer of both protons and electrons [5,6]. Conventionally, the catalyst layer in the electrodes of PEMFCs is obtained by directly coating a paste mixture of Pt/C powders with polymer electrolyte on the gas diffusion media or the electrolyte membrane [7e9]. In this conventional method, much of the platinum particles are not * Corresponding author. Tel.: þ82 63 270 2288; fax: þ82 63 270 2305. E-mail addresses: yeontae@jbnu.ac.kr (H.-G. Lee), yeontae@jbnu.ac.kr (Y.-T. Yu). Available online at www.sciencedirect.com journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/he international journal of hydrogen energy 38 (2013) 3606 e3613 0360-3199/$ e see front matter Copyright ª 2013, Hydrogen Energy Publications, LLC. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.ijhydene.2013.01.059