Issue 12, 2019

The preparation and mechanistic study of highly effective PtSnRu ternary nanorod catalysts toward the ethanol oxidation reaction

Abstract

Although Pt-based anodes have shown promising electrochemical behaviors toward the ethanol oxidation reaction (EOR) in the direct ethanol fuel cell (DEFC) application, the rational design for optimizing the structures and compositions of catalysts is yet to be fully understood due largely to the lack of mechanistic insights into the catalytic reaction. Herein, we systematically investigated EOR on Pt-based binary (PtSn and PtRu) and ternary (PtSnRu) nanorods with varied atomic ratios to elucidate the effects of chemical composition and structure on the electrochemical behavior. The electrochemical results showed that Sn and Ru in the ternary PtSnRu NRs can effectively promote the EOR performance, both at 0.6 V (I06) and peak potential (Imax), as compared to binary PtSn and PtRu NRs. The enhanced activity at a low potential (I06) corresponded to the strengthened adsorption of water and ethanol on Ru site with a highly energetic d band structure; this at a high potential (Imax) was related to the oxygen-containing species on surface Sn, lowering the oxidation barriers through hydrogen-bond interactions, according to density functional theory-based calculations. The combination of electrochemical experiments on modeled binary and ternary electrodes and theoretical computation offers an effective approach to clarify the complex EOR mechanism and provides information vital to achieving the realistic design of better EOR anodes.

Graphical abstract: The preparation and mechanistic study of highly effective PtSnRu ternary nanorod catalysts toward the ethanol oxidation reaction

Supplementary files

Article information

Article type
Paper
Submitted
09 iyl 2019
Accepted
22 sen 2019
First published
25 sen 2019

Sustainable Energy Fuels, 2019,3, 3352-3362

The preparation and mechanistic study of highly effective PtSnRu ternary nanorod catalysts toward the ethanol oxidation reaction

T. Huang, H. Zheng, Y. Cheng, C. Liu, S. Lee, J. Wang and K. Wang, Sustainable Energy Fuels, 2019, 3, 3352 DOI: 10.1039/C9SE00474B

To request permission to reproduce material from this article, please go to the Copyright Clearance Center request page.

If you are an author contributing to an RSC publication, you do not need to request permission provided correct acknowledgement is given.

If you are the author of this article, you do not need to request permission to reproduce figures and diagrams provided correct acknowledgement is given. If you want to reproduce the whole article in a third-party publication (excluding your thesis/dissertation for which permission is not required) please go to the Copyright Clearance Center request page.

Read more about how to correctly acknowledge RSC content.

Social activity

Spotlight

Advertisements