Investigation of nano Pt and Pt-based alloys electrocatalysts for direct methanol fuel cells and their properties

Abstract

The electrocatalysts used in micro direct methanol fuel cell (μDMFC), such as Pt/C and Pt alloy/C, prepared by liquid-phase NaBH4 reduction method have been investigated. XC-72 (Cobalt corp. Company, U.S.A) is chosen as the activated carrier for the electrocatalysts to keep the catalysts powder in the range of several nanometers. The XRD, SEM, EDX analyses indicated that the catalysts had small particle size in several nanometers, in excellent dispersed phase and the molar ratio of the precious metals was found to be optimal. The performances of the DMFCs using cathodic catalyst with Pt percentage of 30wt% and different anodic catalysts (Pt-Ru, Pt-Ru-Mo) were tested. The polarization curves and power density curves of the cells were measured to determine the optimal alloy composition and condition for the electrocatalysts. The results showed that the micro direct methanol fuel cell with 30wt% Pt/C as the cathodic catalyst and n(Pt):n(Ru):n(Mo) = 3:2:2 PtRuMo/C as the anodic catalyst at room temperature using 2.0mol/L methanol solution has the best performances.