Platinum nanoparticles supported on activated carbon fiber as catalyst for methanol oxidation

• Published in: Journal of power sources Vol. 175; no. 1; pp. 166 - 174
• Main Authors: Huang, Hui Xing, Chen, Shui Xia, Yuan, Chan’e
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Lausanne Elsevier B.V 03.01.2008; Elsevier Sequoia
• Subjects: Activated carbon fiber support; Applied sciences; Electrocatalyst; Energy; Energy. Thermal use of fuels; Equipments for energy generation and conversion: thermal, electrical, mechanical energy, etc; Exact sciences and technology; Fuel cell; Fuel cells; Methanol oxidation; Platinum; Electrocatalyst; Activated carbon fiber support; Platinum; Methanol oxidation; Fuel cell; Ethanol; Nanoparticle; Alcohol fuel cells; Cyclic voltammetry; Electrocatalysis; Activated carbon; Oxidation; Performance; Catalyst activity; Current density; Catalyst; Comparative study; Carbon fiber; Methanol
• ISSN: 0378-7753; 1873-2755
• DOI: 10.1016/j.jpowsour.2007.08.107

Activated carbon fiber (ACF) with high specific surface area has been used as support in the preparation of Pt nanoparticles electrocatalyst (Pt/ACF) for direct alcohol fuel cells. It is found that the Pt nanoparticles on ACF are highly and homogeneously dispersed with a narrow size distribution in the range of 1.5–3.5 nm with an average size of 2.4 nm. In comparison with the commercial E-TEK Pt/C catalyst, the Pt/ACF catalyst exhibits much higher catalytic activity for methanol, ethanol and isopropanol oxidation, which are about 2.4 times as high as that of the former. The Pt/ACF catalyst is observed to be significantly more stable during the constant current density polarization and continuous cyclic voltammetry in comparison with Pt/C catalyst. Both the uniform dispersion of Pt nanoparticles and strong interactions between Pt nanoparticles and ACF are of benefit to achieve the performance improvement of Pt/ACF catalyst.