Activity of a novel titanium-supported bimetallic PtSn/Ti electrode for electrocatalytic oxidation of formic acid and methanol

Abstract

Bimetallic platinum-tin nanoparticles were codeposited on a titanium surface using a simple one step hydrothermal method process. The electrochemical catalytic activity of this titanium-supported nanoPtSn/Ti electrode towards the oxidation of formic acid and methanol in 0.5 M H 2 SO 4 was evaluated by voltammetric techniques, chronoamperometric responses and electrochemical impedance spectra (EIS). According to the cyclic voltammograms of the oxidation of both formic acid and methanol, the nanoPtSn/Ti presents high anodic current densities and low onset potentials. Potential-time transient measurements show that the nanoPtSn/Ti exhibits high steady-state current densities for the oxidation of both formic acid and methanol. The EIS data indicate that the nanoPtSn/Ti presents very low electrochemical impedance values, showing that for the oxidation of both formic acid and methanol, low charge transfer resistances are present on the nanoPtSn/Ti catalyst. This confirms the high electrocatalytic activity of the nanoPtSn/Ti for the formic acid and methanol oxidation.

Screening of PdM and PtM catalysts in a multi-anode direct formic acid fuel cell

“…The performances of the surface modified PtSn/C catalysts reported here are low relative to those reported for PtSn alloys [37,39]. This is surprising since the same surface modified catalysts have been shown to provide excellent performances in direct ethanol fuel cells [42], and the similarly prepared PtPb/C catalysts are outstanding in the DFAFC.…”

“…PdBi was reported in a patent [37] and has shown better long-term performances than Pd in a DFAFC [38]. PtSn was also reported in a patent [37] and has shown high activity for formic acid oxidation in solution studies [39]. In contrast, PtPb is a relatively well studied system for formic acid oxidation, and has been evaluated in DFAFCs [21,38,40].…”

A comparative theoretical study for the methanol dehydrogenation to CO over Pt3 and PtAu2 clusters

“…This is Figure 5 shows the energy diagram for the methanol decomposition on PtAu 2 cluster starting from O-H bond scission pathway. Figure 6 gathers the geometries of intermediates (IM15-IM19) and transition states (TS [15][16] , TS [16][17] , and Ts [18][19] involved along this pathway. We find that the mechanism details for the reaction over binary PtAu 2 cluster are very similar to that over monometal Pt 3 10.03, 11.45, and 11.96 kcal mol -1 , the methanol is finally oxidized into CO molecule.…”

“…The use of bimetallic catalysts is indicated to be one of the solutions to reduce CO poisoning and improve the catalyst performance [9][10][11]. Many Ptbased bimetallic catalysts, such as PtRu [2][3][4], PtAu [5][6][7], PtCo [12], PtMo [13], and PtSn [14,15], have been found to have higher activity for the methanol dehydrogenation reaction with improved resistance to CO poisoning than pure Pt catalysts, and have been applied successfully to prototypes of commercial DMFCs. In particular, PtAu bimetallic nanoparticles, which have attracted much attention over the past twenty years [16,17], have been proposed as excellent electrocatalysts for methanol electrooxidation [5,[18][19][20][21][22][23] because Au is more stable than nonnoble metals under the DMFCs operating conditions and relatively less expensive than other noble metal materials.…”

Nanoporous Pt Catalyst Modified by Sn Electrodeposition for Electrochemical Oxidation of Formaldehyde

“…[12] In addition, alloying of platinum with some foreign metals enhances the electroactivity of pure Pt electrode through a "bifunctional mechanism". [13][14][15][16] Bimetallic Pt-Ru catalysts were examined as efficient electrocatalysts for formaldehyde oxida-tion. [1,17] Another kind of bimetallic catalyst is Pt-Sn, which demonstrates a superior activity towards formaldehyde oxidation.…”