Physical and Electrochemical Characterizations of PtRu ∕ C Catalysts by Spray Pyrolysis for Electrocatalytic Oxidation of Methanol

Abstract

In this paper, it was reported that the carbon-supported Pt–Ru catalyst used as the anodic catalyst in the direct methanol fuel cell (DMFC) was synthesized with a two-step spray pyrolysis (SP) method using the Pt and Ru metal salt as the precursors and polyethylene glycol (PEG) with the different molecular weights (, 600, and 1000 analytical reagent) as cosolvent. PEG as a cosolvent plays a crucial role in producing catalysts. It was found that the Mw of PEG could affect the electrocatalytic activity of Pt–Ru and the morphology of the Pt–Ru particles in the catalysts prepared with this method. When the Mw of PEG is 600, the Pt–Ru particles in the catalyst prepared with this method possess the small average size, narrow size distribution, uniform dispersion, and high electrochemically active specific surface area. The electrocatalytic activity of the catalyst prepared with this method using the cosolvent PEG with for the methanol oxidation is much higher than that of the commercial E-TEK catalyst. Therefore, the two-step SP method is an excellent method for the preparation of the catalyst used in DMFCs.