Evaluation of the performance of carbon supported Pt-Ru-Ni-P as anode catalyst formethanol electrooxidation

Abstract

This research is aimed to improve the activity and stability of ternary alloy Pt-Ru-Ni/C catalyst. A novel anodic catalyst for direct methanol fuel cell (DMFC), carbon supported Pt-Ru-Ni-P nanoparticles, has been prepared by chemical reduction method by using NaH2PO2 as a reducing agent. One glassy carbon disc working electrode is used to test the catalytic performances of the homemade catalysts by cyclic voltammetric (CV), chronoamperometric (CA) and amperometric i-t measurements in a solution of 0.5 mol L-1 H2SO4 and 0.5 mol L-1 CH3OH. The compositions, particle sizes and morphology of home-made catalysts are evaluated by means of energy dispersive analysis of X-ray (EDAX), X-ray diffraction (XRD) and transmission electron micrographs (TEM), respectively. TEM images show that Pt-Ru-Ni-P nanoparticles have an even size distribution with an average diameter of less than 2 nm. The results of CV, CA and i-t curves indicate that the Pt-Ru-Ni-P/C catalyst shows significantly higher activity and stability for methanol electrooxidation due to the presence of non-metal phosphorus in comparison to Pt-Ru-Ni/C one. All experimental results indicate that the addition of non-metallic phosphorus into the Pt-Ru-Ni/C catalyst has definite value of research and practical application for enhancing the performance of DMFC. © 2010 WILEY-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim.