The direct methanol fuel cells (DMFCs) have attracted tremendous attention as a promising green power sources for transportation and miniature power applications. The performance of DMFC depends on the activity of anode catalysts. Presently, platinum supported on carbon is used as the anode catalyst. The selection of support material also plays an important role in enhancing the catalyst performance. Reduced graphene oxide is considered to be a promising candidate to support the catalyst in DMFCs. In the present study reduced graphene oxide (rGO) is used as the support material to load the nanomaterial comprising of Pt-based heteronanostructure. The catalyst comprising of CoCu bimetallic alloy nanoparticles as core material and Pt nanoparticles were fabricated as shell onto bimetallic alloy by using wet-chemical method. The nanocomposite core-shell material was then supported on reduced graphene oxide (rGO). A series of Pt@CoCu/rGO nanocomposites were synthesized with various compositions and at different conditions to obtain the optimal conditioned material. These nanocomposite electrocatalyst materials have been characterized for their morphology structure and other properties by scanning electron microscopy (SEM), element mapping, Fourier Transform Infrared Spectroscopy (FTIR), X-Ray Diffraction (XRD), thermogravimetric analysis (TGA), and X-ray Photoelectron Spectroscopy (XPS). The results of the characterization revealed successful formation of the desired electrocatalyst material. The electrochemical activity of these anode catalysts for methanol electro-oxidation have been studied by cyclic voltametry (CV) and chronoamperometery (CA). The electrochemical results showed good performance for the electro-oxidation of methanol for DMFCs. The present study opened up new avenues for developing lower cost Pt-based catalysts with better performance. These nanomaterials have potential to be used as electrocatalyst for DMFC applications.

Facile synthesis of Pt-decorated mixed-phase CoCu bimetallic alloys supported on graphene oxide for applications in direct methanol fuel cells

255th National Meeting (2018)

The official archive and repository for all ACS Meetings & Expositions abstracts and select posters or presentations.