Carbon Nanofibers Prepared with Ni-MgO Catalyst Treated by Mechanochemical Process and Their Application as Catalyst Support Material for PEMEC

Mixture of $Ni(OH)_2-Mg(OH)_2$ used as the precurs was treated by mechnochemical(MC) and hand grinding process. Carbon nanofibers(CNF) were prepared using CVD process with the above prepared catalyst. CNFs with a uniform diameter were obtained with MC process treated catalyst, and the diameter could be controlled by tuning the grinding time. CNF bundles with close coalescence were produced with MC treated catalyst. After purification of CNFs and loading with Pt, they were used in fuel cell as the cathode catalyst support. The performance with carbon nanofibers prepared using ground mixture was found to be better than that prepared using unground mixture, which is attributed to the homogeneous CNFs with small diameter and specific interaction between Pt and CNFs.