Effects of CeO₂ pre-calcined at different temperatures on the performance of Pt/CeO₂-C electrocatalyst for methanol oxidation reaction

Abstract

Pt/CeO₂-C catalysts with CeO₂ pre-calcined at 300–600°C were synthesized by combining hydrothermal calcination and wet impregnation. The effects of the pre-calcined CeO₂ on the performance of Pt/CeO₂-C catalysts in methanol oxidation were investigated. The Pt/CeO₂-C catalysts with pre-calcined CeO₂ at 300–600°C showed an average particle size of 2.6–2.9 nm and exhibited better methanol electro-oxidation catalytic activity than the commercial Pt/C catalyst. In specific, the Pt/CeO₂-C catalysts with pre-calcined CeO₂ at 400°C displayed the highest electrochemical surface area value of 68.14 m²·g⁻¹ and I _f/I _b ratio (the ratio of the forward scanning peak current density (I _f) and the backward scanning peak current density (I _b)) of 1.26, which are considerably larger than those (53.23 m²·g⁻¹ and 0.79, respectively) of the commercial Pt/C catalyst, implying greatly enhanced CO tolerance.

Keywords

direct methanol fuel cell / platinum/cerium dioxide-carbon / electrocatalyst / methanol oxidation

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