Electrochemical Development of Ni-Cu Electrodes by Direct and Pulse Current Coating in Ethanol Electro-oxidation for DEFC

The electrocatalytic property of electrode material s is the key for getting high cell current and low overvoltage of a fuel cell from fue ls lectro-oxidation. The bridge between laboratory scale fuel cell development and its fully commercialization is the development of inexpensive but energetic electrode materials. The catalytic actions of an electrode substrate are strongly influenced by t he morphology and the grain fineness of the deposited materials. The present investigati on aims at finding the effect of electrode deposition mode viz. direct current and p ulse current coating, to produce an electrodeposited substrate that can deliver the hig hest current in a direct ethanol fuel cell. Nickel (Ni) is one of such non precious mater ials which has been produced through electro synthesis by both pulse current (PC) and di rect current (DC) coating. It has been found that the morphology of the deposited is highl y influenced by the current density, duty cycle, electrolyte chemistry and right selecti on of deposition potential on the cathodic polarization curve around the Tafel lines. Electrochemical characterization has been done by cyclic voltammetry (CV), chronoamperom etry (CA) and potentiodynamic polarization (PD) studies. The substrate of the ele ctrodeposited material has also been characterized by X-Ray Diffraction analysis (XRD), Energy Dispersive X-Ray Analysis (EDXA) and Scanning Electron Microscope (SEM). It h as also been found that the electro synthesis by pulse current coating at pre-s el cted deposition potential, right at the end of Tafel region, at 40 oC temperature and 1 50 second deposition time, gives the highest delivering current of ethanol fuel oxidatio n.