@article { ISI:000280021000011,
	title = {Artificially designed membranes using phosphonated multiwall carbon nanotube-polybenzimidazole composites for polymer electrolyte fuel cells},
	journal = {Journal of Physical Chemistry Letters},
	volume = {1},
	number = {14},
	year = {2010},
	month = {JUL},
	pages = {2109-2113},
	publisher = {AMER CHEMICAL SOC},
	address = {1155 16TH ST, NW, WASHINGTON, DC 20036 USA},
	abstract = {<p>The ability of phosphonated carbon nanotubes to offer an unprecedented approach to tune both proton-conductivity and mechanical stability of hybrid polymer electrolytes based on the polybenzimidazole membrane is demonstrated for fuel cell applications. The covalent attachment between the amino group of the 2-aminoethylphosphonic acid precursor and CNTs has been confirmed by NMR and IR experiments, while EDAX analysis indicates that one out of every 20 carbon atoms is in the CNT is functionalized. Proton conductivity of the composite membrane shows a remarkable 50\% improvement in performance while a maximum power density of 780 and 600 mW cm(-2) is obtained for the composite and pristine membranes, respectively. Finally, the ultimate strength determined for the composite and pristine membranes is 100 and 65 MPa, respectively, demonstrating the superiority of the composite. This study opens up a new strategy to systematically tune the properties of polymer electrolytes for special applications by using appropriately functionalized CNTS.</p>},
	issn = {1948-7185},
	doi = {10.1021/jz1007005},
	author = {Kannan, Ramaiyan and Aher, Pradnya P. and Palaniselvam, Thangavelu and Kurungot, Sreekumar and Kharul, Ulhas K. and Pillai, Vijayamohanan K.}
}
@article { ISI:000306503200003,
	title = {Activity modulated low platium content oxygen reduction electrocatalysts prepared by inducing nano-order dislocations on carbon nanofiber through N-2-doping},
	journal = {Journal of Physical Chemistry C},
	volume = {116},
	number = {28},
	year = {2012},
	month = {JUL},
	pages = {14754-14763},
	publisher = {AMER CHEMICAL SOC},
	address = {1155 16TH ST, NW, WASHINGTON, DC 20036 USA},
	abstract = {<p>We demonstrate how surface unsaturation developed during small order buckling of graphene interlayer upon doping iron nitride (i.e., FeNx) moieties in carbon nanofiber can be utilized as a very efficient mode of surface activation to establish fine distribution of Pt nanoparticles with 10 wt \%. The surface dislocations have been effectively modulating the oxygen reduction characteristics of Pt through synergistic effects of the interacting species. The simultaneous enhancement of dispersion of Pt and oxygen reduction reaction (ORR) activity with a low weight percentage of dispersed Pt has been attained by FeNx doping, which increases the density of the active sites owing to the formation of fine and abundant delaminated regions on the CNF surface. HR-TEM images clearly depict the fine distribution of Pt nanoparticles on the delaminated regions of FeNxCNF. The stable incorporation of Pt on nitrogen doped active sites has been further confirmed by observing the formation of Pt-N peak at 391.5 eV using XPS analysis. The fine distribution of Pt nanoparticles along the abundant nanopockets between the buckled graphene layers helped the system to attain significantly high electrochemically active surface area of Pt as evident from the cyclic voltammetric studies. The mass activity of PtFeNxCNF at 0.9 V vs RHE is 4.9 mA mgPt(-1) which is two times higher than that of E-TEK. The superior catalytic activity (exchange current density (i(0)) at 0.8 V is 2.61X 10(-6)) could be further confirmed by single cell evaluation of the membrane electrode assembly (MEA) of polymer electrolyte fuel cell (PEFC), where the cathode electrode was fabricated from this new catalyst.</p>},
	issn = {1932-7447},
	doi = {10.1021/jp300881p},
	author = {Palaniselvam, Thangavelu and Irshad, Ahamed and Unni, Bipinlal and Kurungot, Sreekumar}
}
