IrOX Supported onto Niobium-Doped Titanium Dioxide as an Anode Reversal Tolerant Electrocatalyst for Proton Exchange Membrane Fuel Cells

The addition of an oxygen evolution electrocatalyst to an anode catalyst layer is demonstrated as a practical approach to address the voltage reversal of proton exchange membrane fuel cells (PEMFCs). In this work, IrOX nanoparticles uniformly deposited on niobium-doped TiO2 (IrOX/Nb0.1Ti0.9O2) by a sol–gel method are employed as reversal tolerant anodes (RTAs) for PEMFCs. The membrane electrode assembly (MEA) with this RTA possesses a reversal tolerance time of 29.1 min, which is the best result among all the as-prepared MEAs. Meanwhile, the decrease in the cell voltage of this MEA after reversal testing is only 61 mV at a current density of 1.2 A cm–2 with a degradation rate of 11.1%. The improved reversal tolerance is attributed, in part, to the uniformly distributed IrOX nanoparticles, boosting the oxygen evolution reaction and, in part, to avoid the carbon oxidation reaction by the application of a noncarbon support. This result can lay a fundamental basis for the application of RTA based on a noncarbon support to improve the anode reversal tolerance for PEMFCs.