NEW SULFUR-DOPED CARBON FIBER – SUPPORTED ALLOYS FOR ELECTROCATALYTIC REDUCTION OF OXYGEN FOR PEM FUEL CELLS APPLICATIONS

Abstract

The daily increase in the world needs for new sources of energy, the population and economy growth, and the industrial expansions made the demand for new sources of energy a critical request within different societies. Among clean energy sources comes the polymer electrolyte membrane fuel cell (PEMFC), which is used to produce electricity through simple electrochemical reaction process. However, the expensive price of the platinum (Pt) catalyst as one of the main components of fuel cell and considered the most important part responsible for the oxygen reduction reaction (ORR) within the cell, is the main barrier to the commercialization of fuel cells. This thesis deals with the development of novel inexpensive efficient catalysts based on Tri nanostructure metal alloys supported on sulfur doped carbon fibers, which is expected to have high surface area and good conducting properties, the fact that support the electrochemical reaction process within the cell. The synthesized materials was characterized by scanning electron microscope (SEM), Energy-dispersive X-ray spectroscopy (EDX), X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS), X-ray diffraction (XRD), and FTIR in addition to electrochemical characterization for the catalyst responsible for the ORR. Electrospinning technique was used to produce the sulfur-doped carbon nanofiber, while electrochemical deposition technique was used to load the different metals. The produced sulfur-doped CNF exhibited excellent performance towards ORR in PEM fuel cells via 4-electrons pathway.