Fibrous and tubular support materials by electrospinning and atomic layer deposition (ALD) for PEM fuel cells for automotive MEAs

The general requirements for PEM fuel cell catalyst support materials are high electronic conductivity, high specific surface area and high electrochemical and chemical stability. Current structures typically consist of Pt particles on carbon black support material, but the mass activity of these high surface area nanoparticulate catalysts as well as stability of carbon support is limited. New approach for automotive PEM fuel cell catalysts are being developed in project Catapult. In this new approach platinum is deposited as an extremely thin layer on corrosion resistant supports of various morphologies including fibrous and tubular structures. VTT's has been developing two types of structures: core-shell carbon-ceramic sub-µm fibrous and ceramic sub-µm tubular catalyst supports utilizing atomic layer deposition (ALD) method on electrospun sub-µm fibres. Within this presentation we will present production supports made by making oxide layers, firstly, on carbonized electrospun fibres in order to obtain core shell fibrous supports and, secondly, on sacrificial polymeric fibres in order to make tubular supports for platinum coating. Advances of electrospinning compared to traditional processing methods will be discussed.