title: CeO2 nanocubes-graphene oxide as durable and highly active catalyst support for proton exchange membrane fuel cell.
abstract: Rapid degradation of cell performance still remains a significant challenge for proton exchange membrane fuel cell (PEMFC). In this work, we develop novel CeO2 nanocubes-graphene oxide nanocomposites as durable and highly active catalyst support for proton exchange membrane fuel cell. We show that the use of CeO2 as the radical scavenger in the catalysts remarkably improves the durability of the catalyst. The catalytic activity retention of Pt-graphene oxide-8 wt.% CeO2 nanocomposites reaches as high as 69% after 5000 CV-cycles at a high voltage range of 0.8-1.23 V, in contrast to 19% for that of the Pt-graphene oxide composites. The excellent durability of the Pt-CeO2 nanocubes-graphene oxide catalyst is attributed to the free radical scavenging activity of CeO2, which significantly slows down the chemical degradation of Nafion binder in catalytic layers, and then alleviates the decay of Pt catalysts, resulting in the excellent cycle life of Pt-CeO2-graphene oxide nanocomposite catalysts. Additionally, the performance of single cell assembled with Nafion 211 membrane and Pt-CeO2-graphene oxide catalysts with different CeO2 contents in the cathode as well as the Pt-C catalysts in the anode are also recorded and discussed in this study.
authors.affiliation: 1] State Key Laboratory of Information Photonics and Optical Communications, Beijing University of Posts and Telecommunications, Beijing 100876, China [2] School of Science, Beijing University of Posts and Telecommunications, Beijing 100876, China.
authors.forename: M
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Lei
authors.affiliation: 1] State Key Laboratory of Advanced Technology for Materials Synthesis and Processing, Wuhan University of Technology, Wuhan 430070, China [2] Institut für Funktionelle Grenzflächen (IFG), Karlsruher Institut für Technologie, Hermann-von-Helmholtz-Platz 1, 76344 Eggenstein-Leopoldshafen, Germany.
authors.forename: Z B
authors.initials: ZB
authors.lastname: Wang
authors.affiliation: State Key Laboratory of Advanced Technology for Materials Synthesis and Processing, Wuhan University of Technology, Wuhan 430070, China.
authors.forename: J S
authors.initials: JS
authors.lastname: Li
authors.affiliation: State Key Laboratory of Advanced Technology for Materials Synthesis and Processing, Wuhan University of Technology, Wuhan 430070, China.
authors.forename: H L
authors.initials: HL
authors.lastname: Tang
authors.affiliation: State Key Laboratory of Information Photonics and Optical Communications, Beijing University of Posts and Telecommunications, Beijing 100876, China.
authors.forename: W J
authors.initials: WJ
authors.lastname: Liu
authors.affiliation: School of Science, Beijing University of Posts and Telecommunications, Beijing 100876, China.
authors.forename: Y G
authors.initials: YG
authors.lastname: Wang