title: Electrochemical stability and postmortem studies of Pt/SiC catalysts for polymer electrolyte membrane fuel cells.
abstract: In the presented work, the electrochemical stability of platinized silicon carbide is studied. Postmortem transmission electron microscopy and X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy were used to document the change in the morphology and structure upon potential cycling of Pt/SiC catalysts. Two different potential cycle aging tests were used in order to accelerate the support corrosion, simulating start-up/shutdown and load cycling. On the basis of the results, we draw two main conclusions. First, platinized silicon carbide exhibits improved electrochemical stability over platinized active carbons. Second, silicon carbide undergoes at least mild oxidation if not even silicon leaching.
authors.affiliation: †Department of Chemical Engineering, Biotechnology and Environmental Technology, University of Southern Denmark, Niels Bohrs Alle 1, DK-5230 Odense M, Denmark.
authors.forename: Serban N
authors.initials: SN
authors.lastname: Stamatin
authors.affiliation: ‡Department of Chemistry and Nano Science Center, University of Copenhagen, Universitetsparken 5, DK-2100 Copenhagen, Denmark.
authors.forename: Jozsef
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Speder
authors.affiliation: †Department of Chemical Engineering, Biotechnology and Environmental Technology, University of Southern Denmark, Niels Bohrs Alle 1, DK-5230 Odense M, Denmark.
authors.forename: Rajnish
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Dhiman
authors.affiliation: ‡Department of Chemistry and Nano Science Center, University of Copenhagen, Universitetsparken 5, DK-2100 Copenhagen, Denmark.
authors.forename: Matthias
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Arenz
authors.affiliation: †Department of Chemical Engineering, Biotechnology and Environmental Technology, University of Southern Denmark, Niels Bohrs Alle 1, DK-5230 Odense M, Denmark.
authors.forename: Eivind M
authors.initials: EM
authors.lastname: Skou
keywords: accelerated stress test; electrochemical stability; electrochemical surface area; postmortem TEM; postmortem XPS; support corrosion