Abstract
Active and durable electrocatalysts for methanol oxidation reaction are of critical importance to the commercial viability of direct methanol fuel cell technology. Unfortunately, current methanol oxidation electrocatalysts fall far short of expectations and suffer from rapid activity degradation. Here we report platinum–nickel hydroxide–graphene ternary hybrids as a possible solution to this long-standing issue. The incorporation of highly defective nickel hydroxide nanostructures is believed to play the decisive role in promoting the dissociative adsorption of water molecules and subsequent oxidative removal of carbonaceous poison on neighbouring platinum sites. As a result, the ternary hybrids exhibit exceptional activity and durability towards efficient methanol oxidation reaction. Under periodic reactivations, the hybrids can endure at least 500,000 s with negligible activity loss, which is, to the best of our knowledge, two to three orders of magnitude longer than all available electrocatalysts.
Highlights
Active and durable electrocatalysts for methanol oxidation reaction are of critical importance to the commercial viability of direct methanol fuel cell technology
Each component of the hybrids fulfills an important specific role: the metal to serve as the active sites for methanol oxidation; the hydroxide to facilitate the oxidative removal of carbonaceous poisons on adjacent metal sites; and the graphene to provide high electric conductivity needed for fast electrocatalysis
Ni(OH)[2] nanoparticles were grown on graphene oxide (GO) nanosheets suspended in N, N-dimethyl formamide solution through controlled hydrolysis of nickel acetate (NiAc2) at 85 °C
Summary
Active and durable electrocatalysts for methanol oxidation reaction are of critical importance to the commercial viability of direct methanol fuel cell technology. During MOR electrocatalysis, Ru assists in the dissociative adsorption of water molecules to form OH adspecies on its surface These OH adspecies promote the oxidation of poisoning CO on neighbouring Pt sites and thereby facilitate their regeneration for further methanol oxidation[2,3,6,7]. Each component of the hybrids fulfills an important specific role: the metal to serve as the active sites for methanol oxidation; the hydroxide to facilitate the oxidative removal of carbonaceous poisons on adjacent metal sites; and the graphene to provide high electric conductivity needed for fast electrocatalysis
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