In the recent years, extensive research work is being carried out and reported on improving the performance of catalysts for both anode and cathode of polymer electrolyte membrane fuel cell (PEMFC). The single cell performance of carbon supported Pt–WO3 electrocatalysts with various compositions (as weight percentage Pt–W 2:8, 4:6, 6:4, 2:8) as anode material was investigated in polymer electrolyte membrane fuel cell and compared to that of 10% Pt/C on the same carbon support and 10% Pt/C (commercial) electrocatalyst. The physical and morphological characterization of the optimized Pt–WO3, 10% Pt/C, 10% Pt/C (commercial) electrocatalysts were further investigated by X-ray diffraction (XRD), cyclic voltammetry, and scanning electron microscopy (SEM) with EDX, transmission electron microscopy (TEM) techniques. The performance of Pt–WO3/C (with a weight percentage of Pt–W 6:4) as anode material was better than those of other compositions of Pt–WO3/C catalyst, 10% Pt/C and 10% Pt/C (commercial). The amount of Pt was also reduced from 1.76 mg cm−2 to 1.046 mg cm−2 which exhibited higher performance in single cell tests.

Nano-structured PteWO3/C, PteWO3eTiO2/C and Pt/C catalysts are synthesized by chemical reduction method using sodium borohydride as reducing agent. The catalysts thus prepared are characterized and compared with commercial Pt/C catalyst. The electrochemical performances are characterized by single cell test evaluation, long term stability test and cyclic voltammetry measurement. The chemical compositions, physical and morphological characterizations are investigated by various techniques such X-ray diffraction (XRD), scanning electron microscopy (SEM) with energy dispersive X-ray spectroscopy (EDX) and transmission electron microscopy (TEM). XRD analysis shows that, all prepared catalysts exhibited face-centered cubic structures. XRD results confirm that, the PteWO3/C and PteWO3eTiO2/C catalysts are smaller in particle size and larger in surface area calculated from line broadening. The amount of Pt reduced from1.76 mg cm
2 (10% Pt/C) to 1.056 mg cm
2 and 0.704 mg cm
2 in the case of PteWO3/C and PteWO3eTiO2/C respectively. Both the tungstate and titanate based electrocatalysts have exhibited higher performance in single cell tests than lone Pt catalysts.