PtRh alloys on hybrid TiO2 - Carbon support as high efficiency catalyst for ethanol oxidation

High cost and poor stability of catalysts remain major obstacles for the commercialization of direct ethanol fuel cells (DEFCs). In this work, a Pt9Rh/TiO2-C nanostructured catalyst is synthesized via an impregnation-reduction method followed by thermal annealing in N-2 at ambient pressure. X-ray powder diffraction (XRD) and scanning transmission electron microscopy (STEM) are used to characterize the corresponding physico-chemical properties of the as-prepared catalysts. The results reveal that PtRh nanoparticles are uniformly distributed on the TiO2-C hybrid support material. Cyclic voltammetry, linear scan voltammetry, CO-stripping voltammograms, chronoamperometry and chronopotentiometry methods are employed to investigate their catalytic performance for ethanol oxidation. The results show that the Pt9Rh/TiO2-C produced a current density of 1039.5 mA mg(Pt)(-1) which are 3.98, 8.31 and 2.43 times higher than Pt/TiO2-C, Pt/C and Pt9Rh/C, respectively. Furthermore, the Pt9Rh/TiO2-C also has greater resistance to CO-poisoning and displays better stability for ethanol oxidation than other catalysts. Pt9Rh/TiO2-C therefore provides a promising material for ethanol oxidation in direct ethanol fuel cells. (C) 2017 Hydrogen Energy Publications LLC. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.