Atmospheric Plasma Deposition: A new pathway in the design of Conducting Polymer-based Anodes for Hydrogen Fuel Cells

Marc Michel (1) , Jerôme Bour (1) , Julien Petersen (1) , Claire Arnoult (1) , Frank Ettingshausen (2) , Christina Roth (2) , David Ruch (1)

1 Advanced Materials and Structures
2 Institute for Materials Science

In this study, we explored thin films of nanofibrous functionalized conducting plasma Polyaniline (pPANI) with platinum deposited by an atmospheric plasma deposition process for the potential design of anodes for hydrogen fuel cell applications. We observed that the incorporation of such a polymer, characterized by both electronic and ionic conductivity, associated with a catalyst in a 3D porous network, could lead to an increased probability of the three-phase contact to occur. In this context, aniline was mixed with functionalized platinum nanoparticles and used as the precursor. The role of these functionalized nanoparticles was not only to act as the catalyst for fuel cell purposes, but also as nucleation sites promoting the formation of the nanofibrous pPANI thin film during the plasma polymerization. The morphology of the thin film was analyzed by scanning electron microscopy and the efficiency, in terms of energy conversion, was assessed in a single fuel cell test bench.

Mots clés: Physical Sciences

Marc Michel, Jerôme Bour, Julien Petersen, Claire Arnoult, Frank Ettingshausen, et al.. Atmospheric Plasma Deposition: A new pathway in the design of Conducting Polymer-based Anodes for Hydrogen Fuel Cells. Fuel Cells, 2010, 10 (6), pp.932. ⟨10.1002/fuce.201000050⟩. ⟨hal-00574812⟩