| abstract |
A gas diffusion electrode for a proton exchange membrane fuel cell is prepared by electrodeposition of a catalytic metal in nanocrystalline form on a substrate by contacting an electrically conductive substrate and a counterelectrode with a plating bath containing ions of a metal to be deposited on the substrate and passing a pulsed electric current between the substrate and counterelectrode having pulses that are cathodic with respect to the substrate and have a short on-time and/or a short duty cycle with a frequency from about 10 hertz to about 5000 hertz. In a preferred embodiment the electric current is a modulated reversing electric current having pulses that are cathodic with respect to the substrate and pulses that are anodic with respect to the substrate, the cathodic pulses having a short on-time and/or short duty cycle, the charge transfer ratio of the cathodic pulses to the anodic pulses being greater than one, and the frequency of the pulses ranging from about 10 hertz to about 5 kilohertz. |