Support materials for PEMFC and DMFC electrocatalysts—A review

Polymer electrolyte membrane fuel cells (PEMFC) and direct methanol fuel cells (DMFC) have found a wide variety of commercial applications. Their performance is essentially governed by the electrocatalyst support materials as they strongly influence the electrocatalyst performance, durability and efficiency. It is well known that carbonaceous support materials suffer from carbon corrosion (oxidation) especially at high potentials over time and thus alternative low-cost, high-performing and non-corrosive electrocatalyst support materials are urgently required. This review highlights the performance and issues associated with a variety of carbon based materials such as carbon nanotubes (CNT), carbon nanofibers (CNF), mesoporous carbon and graphene as well as non-carbonaceous based materials, e.g. titania, indium oxides, alumina, silica and tungsten oxide and carbide, ceria, zirconia nanostructures and conducting polymers catalyst support materials. Comparisons and advantages and disadvantages of the various supports are clearly described in this review.