Preparation and characterization of Pt-Sn/C electrocatalysts for direct methanol fuel cells

NATALIA S. VEIZAGA; VIRGINIA RODRIGUEZ; OSVALDO A. SCELZA; SERGIO R. DE MIGUEL

Congreso; 12th European Congress on Catalysis ? EuropaCat-XII; 2015

Low temperature Direct Alcohol Fuel Cells (DAFCs) are extremely attractive as power sources for transportation, mobile and portable applications [1]. Methanol oxidation has been reported to involve the adsorption of CH3OH followed by successive dehydrogenation steps, yielding linearly bonded CO. At sufficiently anodic potentials, the adsorbed carbon monoxide COads, is belived to react with an adsorbed OHads intermediate. In general, it has been shown that pure Pt systems are not efficient catalysts for the oxidation of methanol because Pt is rapidly poisoned by the CO species produced as oxidation intermediates. For this reason, the modification of Pt electrode with other metals including Ru, Sn, Mo and Sb has been investigated extensively [2].