Self-Standing Nanofiber Electrodes with Pt–Co Derived from Electrospun Zeolitic Imidazolate Framework for High Temperature PEM Fuel Cells

Expedited conversion of O₂ to H₂O with minimal amounts of Pt is essential for wide applicability of PEM fuel cells (PEMFCs). Therefore, it is imperative to develop a process for catalyst management to circumvent unnecessary catalyst loss while improving the Pt utilization, catalytic activity, and durability. Here, the fabrication of a self-standing nanofiber electrode is demonstrated by employing electrospinning. This film-type catalyst simultaneously contains Pt–Co alloy nanoparticles and Co embedded in an N-doped graphitized carbon (Co–N_x) support derived from the electrospun zeolitic imidazolate frameworks. Notably, the flexible electrode is directly transferrable for the membrane-electrode assembly of high temperature PEMFC. In addition, the electrodes exhibit excellent performance, maybe owing to the synergistic interaction between the Pt–Co and Co–N_x as revealed by the computational modeling study. This method simplifies the fabrication and operation of cell device with negligible Pt loss, compared to ink-based conventional catalyst coating methods.