Facile synthesis of RuCoOx/N-CNT@PEDOT-SH/Pt for high catalytic performance of the methanol electro-oxidation

Abstract

The exploration of direct methanol fuel cell (DMFC) catalysts has always been a great challenge. We present a facile method to prepare RuCoOx/N-CNT, composited with PEDOT-SH and supported Pt nanoparticles (Pt NPs) as catalyst for methanol oxidation reaction (MOR). Bimetallic oxide carbon nanotubes (RuCoOx/N-CNT) serve as a carrier and a cocatalyst, especially the introduction of RuOx into CoOx can also generate a large number of oxygen vacancies, which can be used as highly active centers as reactants to provide adsorption (or coordination) sites, facilitating electron transfer between reactants and improving the hydrophilicity of catalysts, thereby promoting redox reaction kinetics. A series of structural characterizations show that alloying and charge redistribution exist in RuCoOx/[email protected]/Pt, and oxygen vacancies can effectively change the electronic structure and improve the exposure of active sites density, thereby enhancing MOR activity. Performance tests such as CV、i-t、stability test show that the electrocatalytic activity of RuCoOx/[email protected]/Pt (2003.3 mA mg-1Pt) is far superior to that of RuCoOx/N-CNT/Pt (1324.8 mA mg-1Pt) and commercial Pt/C (279.6 mA mg-1Pt) catalysts. This strategy can provide a scheme for high-performance, low-cost anode catalyst design in MOR.