Potential of 3D Hierarchical Porous TiO2-Graphene Aerogel (TiO2-GA) as Electrocatalyst Support for Direct Methanol Fuel Cells

Abstract

Fuel cells have already demonstrated their potential for green energy generation. However, the low reaction performance becomes an obstacle in terms of large-scale commercial manufacturing. Accordingly, this work focuses on a new unique fabrication of three-dimensional pore hierarchy TiO2-graphene aerogel (TiO2-GA) supporting PtRu catalyst for anodic catalyst direct methanol fuel cell, which is facile, ecologically benign, and economical. In this work, a hydrothermal technique was used, followed by a freeze-drying technique and a microwave-assisted ethylene reduction technique. The structural properties of the studied materials were confirmed by UV/visible spectroscopy, XRD, Raman spectrum, FESEM TEM, and XPS. Based on existing structural advantages, the performance of PtRu/TiO2-GA has been investigated on DMFC anode catalysts. Furthermore, electrocatalytic stability performance with the same loading (~20%) was compared to commercial PtRu/C. Experimental outcomes show that the TiO2-GA support offered a significantly high surface area value of 68.44 m2g−1, mass activity/specific activity (608.17 mAmg−1/0.45 mA/cm2PtRu) that is higher than commercial PtRu/C (79.11 mAmg−1/0.19 mA/cm2PtRu). In passive DMFC mode, PtRu/TiO2-GA showed a maximum power density of 3.1 mW cm−2, which is 2.6 times higher than that of the PtRu/C commercial electrocatalyst. This suggests that PtRu/TiO2-GA has a promising possibility for methanol oxidation and may be used as an anodic element in DMFC.