Acta Phys. -Chim. Sin. ›› 2010, Vol. 26 ›› Issue (03): 669-674.doi: 10.3866/PKU.WHXB20100316

• CATALYSIS AND SURFACE STRUCTURE • Previous Articles     Next Articles

Shortened Carbon Nanotubes as Supports to Prepare High-Performance Pt/SCNT and PtRu/SCNT Catalysts for Fuel Cells

WU Yan-Ni, LIAO Shi-Jun   

  1. School of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering, South China University of Technology, Guangzhou 510641, P. R. China; School of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering, Zhaoqing University, Zhaoqing 526061, Guangdong Province, P. R. China
  • Received:2009-09-05 Revised:2009-11-20 Published:2010-03-03
  • Contact: LIAO Shi-Jun E-mail:chsjliao@scut.edu.cn

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Abstract:

Ball milling was used with ethanol as a milling aid agent to shorten the carbon nanotubes (SCNT) from 5-15 μmto ca 200 nm. We prepared a platinum catalyst Pt/SCNT and a platinum ruthenium alloy catalyst PtRu/SCNT using the shortened nanotubes as supports by a colloidal method. We found that Pt/SCNT showed much higher activity than Pt/CNT during the anodic oxidation of methanol. The peak current density for Pt/SCNT was 1.4 times as high as that of Pt/CNT and it was also much higher than that of the commercial Pt/C catalyst. Furthermore, we found that PtRu/SCNT showed higher activity than that of Pt/SCNT and PtRu/C catalysts. The results of X-ray diffraction analysis (XRD), transmission electron microscopy (TEM), and the specific surface area (BET) method. revealed that the crystal structure of the nanotubes did not change before or after shortening whereas the special surface area and the electrochemical activity increased significantly.

Key words: Direct methanol fuel cell, Electrocatalyst, Methanol oxidation, Shortened carbon nanotubes