Single step plasma deposition of platinum-fluorocarbon nanocomposite films as electrocatalysts of interest for micro fuel cells technology

In this paper, we present a one step plasma based approach for the deposition of Pt-fluorocarbon nanocomposite films as electrocatalysts in hydrogen-based micro fuel cells. Results show that the chemical and morphological structure of the film can be tuned by controlling the power delivered to the plasma, and the gas feed composition. Platinum is included in the film in metallic form and its content can be continuously varied from a few atomic percent to 86%. The metal is embedded in the film as crystalline nanoclusters of size below 10 nm, uniformly distributed across the sample. Film catalytic activity, in terms of hydrogen oxidation reaction, has been tested by cyclovoltammetry and it increases with the Pt loading, with a maximum specific electrochemical surface area of 94cm2 · mg-1, for film deposited on flat glassy carbon.