Durable Transition-Metal-Carbide-Supported Pt-Ru Anodes for Direct Methanol Fuel Cells

Molybdenum carbide (MoC) and tungsten carbide (WC) are synthesized by direct carbonization method. PtRu catalysts supported on MoC, WC, and Vulcan XC-72R are prepared, and characterized by X-ray diffraction, X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy, and transmission electron microscopy in conjunction with electrochemistry. Electrochemical activities for the catalysts towards methanol electro-oxidation are studied by cyclic voltammetry. All the electro-catalysts are subjected to accelerated durability test (ADT). The electrochemical activity of carbide-supported electro-catalysts towards methanol electro-oxidation is found to be higher than carbon-supported catalysts before and after ADT. The study suggests that PtRu/MoC and PtRu/WC catalysts are more durable than PtRu/C. Direct methanol fuel cells (DMFCs) with PtRu/MoC and PtRu/WC anodes also exhibit higher performance than the DMFC with PtRu/C anode.

PtRuO/Ti anodes with a varying Pt:Ru ratio for direct methanol fuel cells

PtRuO/Ti anodes with a varying Pt:Ru ratio were prepared by thermal deposition of a PtRuO catalyst layer onto a Ti mesh for the direct methanol fuel cell (DMFC). The morphology and structure of the catalyst layers were analyzed by SEM, EDX, and XRD. The catalyst coating layers became porous with increase of the Ru content, and showed oxide and alloy characteristics. The relative activities of the PtRuO/Ti electrodes were assessed and compared using half-cell tests and single DMFC experiments. The results showed that these electrodes were very active for the methanol oxidation and that the optimum Ru surface coverage was ca. 38% for a DMFC operating at 20-60 °C. © 2006 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

PtRu/Ti anodes with varying Pt:Ru ratio prepared by electrodeposition for the direct methanol fuel cell

PtRu/Ti anodes with varying Pt : Ru ratio were prepared by electrodeposition of a thin PtRu catalyst layer onto Ti mesh for a direct methanol fuel cell (DMFC). The morphology and structure of the catalyst layers were analyzed by SEM, EDX and XRD. The catalyst coating layer shows an alloy character. The relative activities of the PtRu/Ti electrodes were assessed and compared in half cell and single DMFC experiments. The results show that these electrodes are very active for the methanol oxidation and that the optimum Ru surface coverage was ca. 9 at.% for DMFC operating at 20°C and 11 at.% at 60°C. The PtRu/Ti anode shows a performance comparable to that of the conventional carbon-based anode in a DMFC operating with 0.25 M or 0.5 M methanol solution and atmosphere oxygen gas at 90°C. © the Owner Societies 2006.

Electrochemical co-deposition of bimetallic Pt-Ru nanoclusters dispersed on poly(3,4-ethylenedioxythiophene) and electrocatalytic behavior for methanol oxidation

Nanoclusters of bimetallic Pt-Ru are electrochemically deposited on conductive polymer, poly(3,4-ethylenedioxythiophene)(PEDOT), which is also electrochemically deposited on a carbon paper substrate. The bimetallic deposition is carried out in an acidic electrolyte consisting of chloroplatinic acid and ruthenium chloride at 0.0 V versus saturated calomel electrode (SCE) on PEDOT coated carbon paper. A thin layer PEDOT on a carbon paper substrate facilitates the formation of uniform, well-dispersed, nano clusters of Pt-Ru of mean diameter of 123 nm, which consist of nanosize particles. In the absence of PEDOT, the size of the clusters is about 251 nm, which are unevenly distributed on carbon paper substrate. Cyclic voltammetry studies suggest that peak currents of methanol oxidation are several times greater on PtRu-PEDOT electrode than on Pt-Ru electrode in the absence of PEDOT. (C) 2011 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Pt-Ru decorated self-assembled TiO2-carbon hybrid nanostructure for enhanced methanol electrooxidation

Porous titanium oxide-carbon hybrid nanostructure (TiO2-C) with a specific surface area of 350 m(2)/g and an average pore-radius of 21 center dot 8 is synthesized via supramolecular self-assembly with an in situ crystallization process. Subsequently, TiO2-C supported Pt-Ru electro-catalyst (Pt-Ru/TiO2-C) is obtained and investigated as an anode catalyst for direct methanol fuel cells (DMFCs). X-ray diffraction, Raman spectroscopy and transmission electron microscopy (TEM) have been employed to evaluate the crystalline nature and the structural properties of TiO2-C. TEM images reveal uniform distribution of Pt-Ru nanoparticles (d (Pt -aEuro parts per thousand Ru) = 1 center dot 5-3 center dot 5 nm) on TiO2-C. Methanol oxidation and accelerated durability studies on Pt-Ru/TiO2-C exhibit enhanced catalytic activity and durability compared to carbon-supported Pt-Ru. DMFC employing Pt-Ru/TiO2-C as an anode catalyst delivers a peak-power density of 91 mW/cm(2) at 65 A degrees C as compared to the peak-power density of 60 mW/cm(2) obtained for the DMFC with carbon-supported Pt-Ru anode catalyst operating under similar conditions.

Synthesis and characterization of carbon black supported Pt-Ru alloy as a model catalyst for fuel cells

A set of bimetallic Pt-Ru catalysts prepared by co-impregnation of carbon black with ruthenium(III) chloride hydrate and hydrogen hexachloroplatinate(IV) hydrate were investigated by temperature-programmed reduction (TPR), chemisorption of hydrogen, transmission electron microscopy (TEM), microcalorimetry of adsorbed CO and a structure-sensitive reaction (n-hexane conversion). The results showed that the volumetric capacities for CO and H-2 adsorption is influenced in the bimetallic Pt-Ru catalysts by the formation of a Pt-Ru alloy. The n-hexane reaction revealed that the reaction mechanism for the pure Pt catalyst mainly occurs via cyclic isomerization and aromatization due to the presence of bigger Pt surface ensembles, whereas the Pt-Ru catalysts exhibited predominantly bond-shift isomerization by the diluting effect of Ru metal addition. The differential heats of CO chemisorption on Pt-Ru catalysts fell between the two monometallic Pt and Ru catalysts extremes. (C) 2004 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Water reduction and oxidation on Pt-Ru/Y2Ta2O5N2 catalyst under visible light irradiation

Y2Ta2O5N2 is presented as a novel photocatalyst with high activity for water splitting under visible-light irradiation in the presence of appropriate sacrificial reagents; the activity for reduction to H-2 is increased by the incorporation of Pt or Ru as a co-catalyst, with a significant increase in production efficiency when both Pt and Ru are present.

固相反应法制备Pt-Ru/C催化剂对乙醇氧化的电催化活性研究

引言近年来,直接甲醇燃料电池(DMFC)由于其燃料来源丰富、价格低廉、甲醇携带和储存安全方便等独特的优越性而越来越受到重视[1]。但是甲醇具有一定的毒性,因此要想实现DMFC在诸如手机、笔记本电脑以及电动车等可移动电源领域的应用,必须探索新的液体燃料以替代有毒性的甲醇。其中乙醇很易从农作物中大量生产,又无毒,因此很有可能用作替代甲醇的质子交换膜燃料电池燃料。近年来乙醇的电催化氧化已被众多的研究者从电催化和乙醇燃料电池的角度进行了广泛的研究[2,3]。但是乙醇在Pt电极上的氧化易导致强吸附物种CO毒化催化剂,Pt鄄Ru合金是目前强吸附毒化物种CO易氧化为CO2的最有效的电催化剂,因此近年来也有一些关于Pt鄄Ru合金催化剂对乙醇的电化学氧化的研究[4~6]。我们研究组首次用固相反应法制备了Pt/C催化剂,发现所制得的Pt/C催化剂对甲醇[7]和乙醇[8]氧化的电催化性能要比用传统的液相反应法制得的Pt/C催化剂好很多。但Pt/C催化剂对甲醇和乙醇氧化的电催化活性还是较低,因此,本文首次研究了用固相反应法制备Pt鄄Ru/C催化剂及这种催化剂对乙醇氧化的电催化性能,发现用固相反应法制备的Pt鄄Ru/C催化剂对乙醇氧...

Novel chemical synthesis of Pt-Ru-P electrocatalysts by hypophosphite deposition for enhanced methanol oxidation and CO tolerance in direct methanol fuel cell

A novel method was developed to prepare the highly active Pt-Ru-P/C catalyst. The deposition of phosphorus significantly increased electrochemical active surface (EAS) area of catalyst by reduces Pt-Ru particle size. TEM images show that Pt-Ru-P nanoparticles have an uniform size distribution with an average diameter of 2 nm. Cyclic voltammetry (CV), Chronoamperometry (CA), and CO stripping indicate that the presence of non-metal phosphorus as an interstitial species Pt-Ru-P/C catalyst shows high activity for the electro-oxidation of methanol, and exhibit enhanced performance in the oxidation of carbon monoxide compared with Pt-Ru/C catalyst. At 30 degrees C and pure oxygen was fed to the cathode, the maximum power density of direct methanol fuel cell (DMFC) with Pt-Ru-P/C and Pt-Ru/C catalysts as anode catalysts was 61.5 mW cm(-2) and 36.6 mW cm(-2), respectively. All experimental results indicate that Pt-Ru-P/C catalyst was the optimum anode catalyst for direct methanol fuel cell.

Room temperature preparation of carbon supported Pt-Ru catalysts

A carbon supported Pt-Ru (Pt-Ru/C-T) catalyst can be prepared by a chemical reduction method in an aqueous solution with tetrahydrofuran (THF) at room temperature. The Pt-Ru particles possess high alloying, small average size and a low relative crystallinity. The electrocatalytic activity of the prepared Pt-Ru/C catalyst for methanol oxidation is much higher than that of commercial Pt-Ru/C (Pt-Ru/C-E) catalysts which have a similar average size and relative crystallinity, but the alloying extent is much lower than that in our Pt-Ru/C-T catalyst. The results illustrate that the alloying extent of Pt and Ru in the Pt-Ru/C catalyst plays an important role in the electrocatalytic activity of the Pt-Ru/C catalyst for methanol oxidation.

Preparation of a carbon supported Pt catalyst using an improved organic sol method and its electrocatalytic activity for methanol oxidation

The organic sol method for preparing ultrafine transition metal colloid particles reported for the first time by Bonnemann et al. [H. Bonnemann, W Brijoux, R. Brinkmann, E. Dinjus, T. Jou beta en, B. Korall, Angew. Chem. Int. Ed. Engl., 30 (1991) 1312] has been improved in this paper. The improved organic sol method uses SnCl2 as the reductant and methanol as the organic solvent. Thus, this method is very simple and inexpensive. It was found that the average size of the Pt particles in the Pt/C catalysts can be controlled by adjusting the evaporating temperature of the solvent. Therefore, the Pt/C catalysts prepared by the same method are suitable for evaluating the size effect of the Pt particles on electrocatalytic performance for methanol oxidation. The results of the X-ray diffraction (XRD) and transmission electron microscopy (TEM) showed that when the evaporating temperatures of the solvent are 65, 60, 50, 40, and 30 degrees C, the average sizes of the Pt particles in the Pt/C catalysts prepared are: 2.2, 3.2, 3.8, 4.3, and 4.8 nm, respectively. The X-ray photoelectron spectroscopic (XPS) results demonstrated that the small Pt particles are easily oxidized and the decomposition/adsorption of methanol cannot proceed on the surfaces of Pt oxides.

合金化程度对炭载Pt-Ru催化剂性能的影响

在含四氢呋喃(THF)的水溶液中,室温下用NaBH4还原H2PtC l6和RuC l3制得Pt-Ru/C催化剂.其Pt-Ru粒子的合金化程度较高,平均粒径较小,相对结晶度较低.因此对甲醇氧化的电催化活性远高于Pt-Ru粒子的平均粒径和相对结晶度相似的,而且Pt-Ru合金化程度低的商业化的E-TEK的Pt-Ru/C催化剂,表明Pt-Ru的合金化程度对Pt-Ru/C催化甲醇氧化的电催化活性有很大的影响.

一种制备碳载高合金化Pt-Ru催化剂的方法

提出了在四氢呋喃(THF)和H2O混合溶液中用一般的化学还原法在室温下制备碳载Pt-Ru(Pt-Ru/C)催化剂的新方法。与在纯水中制得的Pt-Ru/C催化剂相比,其Pt-Ru粒子的合金化程度高、平均粒径较小且相对结晶度低,因此,该催化剂对甲醇氧化的电催化活性远高于在纯水中制得的Pt-Ru/C催化剂。高合金化程度的原因是H2PtCl6和RuCl3在THF和H2O混合溶液中的起始还原电位相近。此外,在THF和H2O混合溶液中,THF和H2O的体积比的改变并不影响制得的Pt-Ru/C催化剂中Pt-Ru粒子的合金化程度,但对Pt-Ru粒子的粒径以及相对结晶度有较大影响。

PEMFC催化剂的研究:自制抗CO中毒Pt-Ru/C电催化剂的性质

用胶体法制备了抗CO中毒PEMFC阳极Pt Ru/C电催化剂 (标记为THYT 2 ),对比研究了THYT 2与JohnsonMatthey(JM)公司同类品牌Pt Ru/C催化剂的电化学及其它物理化学性能 .结果表明 ,THYT 2电催化剂在甲醇燃料电池和CO/H2(ΦCO=1× 10 -4)的氢氧燃料电池中的电催化行为与JM催化剂相当,但THYT 2在低浓度CO氢气燃料中的电池性能更好 .两种催化剂的其它物理化学性质具有类似性 :XPS分析结果表明THYT 2和JM催化剂中都有三种不同价态的Pt存在 :即金属态Pt(0 )、氧化态Pt(II)和Pt(IV) .HRTEM测试结果表明两种催化剂的粒径处在 2～3nm左右 ,这可能是它们拥有良好电化学性能的主要原因之一 .本文还对催化剂中Pt与Ru组分的分布和相互作用进行了讨论 ,提出了改进Pt Ru/C电催化剂的思路