A Methanol-Tolerant Carbon-Supported Pt-Au Alloy Cathode Catalyst for Direct Methanol Fuel Cells and Its Evaluation by DFT

Selvarani, G and Selvaganesh, SV and Krishnamurthy S, S and Kiruthika, GVM and Sridhar, P and Pitchumani, S and Shukla, AK (2009) A Methanol-Tolerant Carbon-Supported Pt-Au Alloy Cathode Catalyst for Direct Methanol Fuel Cells and Its Evaluation by DFT. In: Journal of Physical Chemistry, 113 (17). pp. 7461-7468.

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Abstract

A Pt-Au alloy catalyst of varying compositions is prepared by codeposition of Pt and Au nanoparticles onto a carbon support to evaluate its electrocatalytic activity toward an oxygen reduction reaction (ORR) with methanol tolerance in direct methanol fuel cells. The optimum atomic weight ratio of Pt to Au in the carbon-supported Pt-Au alloy (Pt-Au/C) as established by cell polarization, linear-sweep voltammetry (LSV), and cyclic voltammetry (CV) studies is determined to be 2:1. A direct methanol fuel cell (DMFC) comprising a carbon-supported Pt-Au (2:1) alloy as the cathode catalyst delivers a peak power density of 120 mW/cm2 at 70 °C in contrast to the peak power density value of 80 mW/cm2 delivered by the DMFC with carbon-supported Pt catalyst operating under identical conditions. Density functional theory (DFT) calculations on a small model cluster reflect electron transfer from Pt to Au within the alloy to be responsible for the synergistic promotion of the oxygen-reduction reaction on a Pt-Au electrode.

Item Type:	Journal Article
Publication:	Journal of Physical Chemistry
Publisher:	American Chemical Society
Additional Information:	Copyright of this article belongs to American Chemical Society.
Department/Centre:	Division of Chemical Sciences > Solid State & Structural Chemistry Unit
Date Deposited:	24 Feb 2010 07:55
Last Modified:	19 Sep 2010 05:55
URI:	http://eprints.iisc.ac.in/id/eprint/25858

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