Methanol Electrochemical Oxidation on Modified Alumina Supporting Pt-single Atom Catalyst

Abstract

A facile procedure to synthesize Pt single atoms dispersed on Al2O3 nanoparticles, for methanol oxidation reaction (MOR), was proposed. An effective surface modification, to enhance overall electrocatalytic performance, was performed. Transmission Electron Microscopy (TEM), thermogravimetric analysis (TG), Fourier Transform Infrared Spectroscopy (FTIR), and X-ray diffraction (XRD) were employed for nanomaterial characterization. The catalyst showed a low onset potential of 0.04 V and a very high If/Ib ratio of 2.14. The results obtained in this work evidence the outstanding performances of the synthesized nano-electrocatalyst.