Supported Pt-based nanoparticulate catalysts for the electro-oxidation of methanol: An experimental protocol for quantifying its activity

In here, we propose a simple methodology to evaluate the activity of supported nano-particulate catalysts on the electro-oxidation of methanol in a three-electrode cell. The proof of concept has been made on carbon supported Pt and PtRu commercial catalysts, but the protocol can be extended to all kinds of Pt-based nanoparticles. Even though the electro-oxidation of methanol has been studied for many years, there is no established electrochemical procedure for measuring the performance of a catalyst in such reaction. The conditions in which the measurements are carried out differ between research groups making comparison troublesome, and hence can lead to erroneous interpretation of the experimental data. Our experiments prove that it is incorrect to compare results obtained from different electrochemical techniques such as cyclic voltammetry or chronoamperometry, which is a common error detected in the literature. We recommend analyzing the catalytic activity in the methanol oxidation reaction by chronoamperometry. This is because it is the only way to account poisoning effects on the catalytic surface, which will determine the performance of the catalyst as anode in a direct methanol fuel cell. Copyright (C) 2014, Hydrogen Energy Publications, LLC. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.