Nabtahil Iqbal; Shakir Khan; Fawad Ahmad
Abstract
Rising energy consumption and depleting fossil fuel availability are the key issues and concerns about the impact of using traditional fossil fuels on human health. Compared to well-known ...
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Rising energy consumption and depleting fossil fuel availability are the key issues and concerns about the impact of using traditional fossil fuels on human health. Compared to well-known Internal Combustion Engine (ICE) technologies, fuel cells (FCs) are efficient and environmentally friendly tools that electrochemically transform the chemical energy of fuels like H2, natural gas, methanol, ethanol and hydrocarbons into electric energy with significantly higher efficiency and much lower greenhouse gas emission. Despite having many advantages, there is a need for developing an electrode catalyst that has comparable activity to standard Pt or other noble metal catalysts, but it should also be cost cost-effective. In this regard, lead zirconium titanate (PZT) and strontium cerium oxide (SrCeO) catalysts have been synthesized through hydrothermal technique. These materials were then characterized using a scanning electron microscope (SEM), X-ray diffraction (XRD) analysis, and thermal gravimetric analysis (TGA). The average size of the PZT from the SEM was 0.9 µm, and SrCeO was 1.82 µm. The purity and crystallinity of both materials were observed from the XRD pattern. TGA of PZT shows 26.7% weight loss up to 500 °C, while SrCeO shows 5.1% weight loss up to 650 oC. The electrochemical behavior in alcohol fuel cells is expressed through cyclic voltammetry, Linear Sweep Voltammetry, tafel plot and chronoamperometry.
