Acta Phys. -Chim. Sin. ›› 2010, Vol. 26 ›› Issue (05): 1207-1213.doi: 10.3866/PKU.WHXB20100522

• ELECTROCHEMISTRY • Previous Articles     Next Articles

Rare Earth Eu Doped PtRu/C Catalysts and Their Properties for Methanol Electrooxidation

AN Xiao-Sha, CHEN De-Jun, ZHOU Zhi-You, WANG Qiang, FAN You-Jun, SUN Shi-Gang   

  1. Key Laboratory for the Chemistry and Molecular Engineering of Medicinal Resources (Ministry of Education of China), College of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering, Guangxi Normal University, Guilin 541004, Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region, P. R. China; State Key Laboratory for Physical Chemistry of Solid Surfaces, Department of Chemistry, College of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering, Xiamen University, Xiamen 361005, Fujian Province, P. R. China
  • Received:2009-09-28 Revised:2010-02-08 Published:2010-04-29
  • Contact: FAN You-Jun, SUN Shi-Gang E-mail:youjunfan@mailbox.gxnu.edu.cn; sgsun@xmu.edu.cn

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Abstract:

Commercially available PtRu/C catalyst was doped with Eu by chemical reduction and sintering, resulting in PtRuEux/C catalysts with different Eu contents. The catalysts were characterized by transmission electron microscopy (TEM), energy dispersive X-ray (EDX) spectroscopy, X-ray diffraction (XRD), and X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS). Results showed that Eu doping did not change the average size of the PtRu/C catalysts (ca 3 nm), and their surfaces were modified by both Eu metal and oxide. Cyclic voltammetry and chronoamperometry demonstrated that the activity of the PtRuEux/C catalysts was higher than that of commercial PtRu/C for methanol electrooxidation. Among the PtRuEux/C catalysts, PtRuEu0.3/C exhibited the best performance. The electrocatalytic oxidation of methanol on the catalyst was further investigated by in situ Fourier transforminfrared (FTIR) spectroscopy at molecular level. Results indicated that the adsorbed species derived from the dissociative adsorption of methanol on the catalysts were linear-bonded CO (COL). Eu doping decreased the oxidation potential of COL and thus significantly enhanced the activity of the catalysts and their tolerance to CO.

Key words: Direct methanol fuel cell, Methanol electrooxidation, Anode catalyst, Rare earth doping, in situ FTIR spectroscopy