Platinum Based Catalysts

Platinum has proven to be the standard catalyst for many oxidation and reduction reactions in both acidic and basic electrolytes and would be an ideal candidate for process feasibility studies.  We call this next generation catalyst "HP" for High Power catalysts.  Typically, as the platinum loading on a carbon support increases, the platinum particles grow in size, especially at the higher loadings, ultimately reducing the available active surface area of the platinum.  However, this new platinum catalyst resists this trend, and is evident under the Technical Information section below, the new series maintains a small platinum crystallite size even at the high metal loadings.  Amazingly, at these higher loadings we are able to maintain relatively high platinum surface areas, thus only moderately reducing the available active surface area of the platinum.  For this new catalyst series the tap density continues to more closely resemble that of the uncatalyzed carbon.  Tap density is often used as a general indicator of the quality of electrode formation, whereby the greater carbon character foretells of a well dispersed electrode layer.

Platinum is most commonly used for Polymer Electrolyte Fuel Cell (PEMFC), Direct Methanol Fuel Cell (DMFC), Microbial Fuel Cell (MFC), and Phosphoric Acid Fuel Cell (PAFC) applications as the cathode catalyst or anode catalyst.  It is also used as a recombination catalyst for hydrogen elimination. Platinum on Vulcan can also be used as a building block for sensor elements.