A thermostatic cell with gas diffusion electrode for oxygen reduction reaction under fuel cell relevant conditions

A thermostatic cell with gas diffusion electrode (GDE) as working electrode has been developed, where gas reactant is directly supplied to the catalysts surface through the porous GDE. The setup greatly eliminates the interferences of temperature-dependent change in mass transport (solubility, diffusion coefficient) of gaseous reactants on the kinetic analysis, as demonstrated by results from the cyclic voltammetric measurements of oxygen reduction reaction (ORR) on Pt-GDE at various temperatures. In contrast to the previous studies using rotating disk electrode or flow cell systems, a monotonically increase in the ORR current with decrease in potential from 1.0 to 0.3 V or with the increase in temperature from 5 to 70 °C is observed. The versatile applicability of such setup for the kinetic studies of reactions with gaseous reactants is discussed.