Miniature fuel cell with monolithically fabricated Si electrodes – Alloy catalyst formation –

A novel Pd-Pt catalyst formation process was proposed for reduction of Pt usage. In our miniature fuel cells, porous Pt was used as the catalyst, and the Pt usage was quite high. To reduce the Pt usage, we have attempted to deposit Pt on porous Pd by galvanic replacement, and relatively large output was demonstrated. In this study, in order to reduce more Pt usage and explore the alloy catalyst formation process, atomic layer deposition by UPD-SLRR (Under Potential Deposition – Surface Limited Redox Replacement) was applied to the Pd-Pt catalyst formation. The new process was verified at each process steps by EDS elemental analysis, and the expected spectra were obtained. Prototype cells were constructed by the new process, and cell output was raised to 420mW/cm² by the Pd-Pt catalyst from 125mW/cm² with Pd catalyst.