Platinum-nickel bimetallic catalyst doped with rare earth for enhancing methanol electrocatalytic oxidation reaction

Abstract

Platinum (Pt) is often used as anodic catalyst for direct methanol fuel cell (DMFC). However, platinum is difficult to achieve large-scale application because of its low stability and high cost. In this work, the electrocatalytic activity and stability of the Pt-based catalyst for methanol oxidation (MOR) are significantly improved by adding Ce and Ni to the catalyst. Additionally, the rare earth element-Pr (Dy) is also chosen to be added into the catalysts for comparison. A series of PtMNi (M = Ce, Pr, Dy) catalysts are prepared by impregnation and galvanic replacement reaction methods using carbon black as support. The electrocatalytic mass activity of PtCeNi/C, PtDyNi/C, PtPrNi/C and Pt/C is 3.92, 1.86, 1.69 and 0.8 A mgPt−1, respectively. The mass activity of these the above four catalysts after stability measurement is 3.14, 1.49, 1.27 and 0.72 A mgPt−1. Among them, PtCeNi/C has the highest catalytic activity. These as-prepared catalysts are also characterized by various analyzing techniques, such as TEM, HRTEM, XRD, XPS, ICP-OES, STEM, STEM-EDS elemental mapping and line-scanning etc. It shows that PtCeNi/C exhibits best catalytic activity (3.92 A mgPt−1) among the as-obtained catalysts, 4.9 times higher than that of commercial Pt/C (0.8 A mgPt−1). PtCeNi/C is also with excellent anti-CO poisoning ability. The outstanding catalytic performance of PtCeNi/C for the MOR is mainly attributable to uniform-sized PtCeNi nanoparticles, uniform Ni, Ce and Pt element distribution, and electron interaction among Pt-, Ni- and Ce-related species (electron transferring from Pt to CeO2).