Abstract
In this study, a platinum-coated Ni foam catalyst (denoted PtNi/Ni foam) was investigated for the oxidation of the formate reaction (FOR) in an alkaline medium. The catalyst was fabricated via a two-step procedure, which involved an electroless deposition of the Ni layer using sodium hypophosphite as a reducing agent and the subsequent electrodeposition of the platinum layer. The PtNi/Ni foam catalyst demonstrated enhanced electrocatalytic activity for the FOR in an alkaline medium compared to the Ni/Ni foam catalyst and pure Pt electrode. Moreover, the PtNi/Ni foam catalyst promoted the FOR at more negative potentials than the Pt electrode. This contributed to a significant negative shift in the onset potential, indicating the high activity of the catalyst. Notably, in alkaline media with the PtNi/Ni foam catalyst, the FOR proceeds via a direct pathway mechanism without significant accumulation of poisonous carbonaceous species on the PtNi/Ni foam catalyst.
Highlights
The large-scale commercialization of formic acid (FA)/formate-based fuel cells is challenging because of the unavailability of highly active, durable, and low-cost catalysts for anodic oxidation reactions
The results reveal that the developed PtNi/Ni foams (Nifoam) catalyst is competitive with state-of-the-art Pt-group materials (PGMs) catalysts and outperforms them in many cases
A promising novel binary catalyst composed of a Pt-modified Ni layer coated on Nifoam was proposed for efficient formate oxidation in an alkaline medium
Summary
The large-scale commercialization of formic acid (FA)/formate-based fuel cells is challenging because of the unavailability of highly active, durable, and low-cost catalysts for anodic oxidation reactions. Some efficient ways to overcome the present drawbacks are to decrease the Pt loading and fabricate nanostructured materials with Pt to exploit its mass activity and stability, or decorate and modify catalysts with Pt heteroatoms for better poison resistance [8,16,17]. Another way to enhance Pt electrocatalysis is to control the acidity of fuel solutions by maintaining a low concentration of FA and a high concentration of formate, which results in a smaller volume of FA being adsorbed. The FOR demonstrates faster reaction kinetics, a lower overpotential, and less poisoning of the anode catalyst in an alkaline media than in an acidic media [19–22]
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