Enhanced methanol electro-oxidation activity of Pt/MWCNTs electro-catalyst using manganese oxide deposited on MWCNTs

Electro-oxidation of methanol on platinum nanoparticles supported on a nanocomposite of manganese oxide (MnOx) and multi-wall carbon nanotubes (MWCNTs) is investigated. The morphology, structure, and chemical composition of the electro-catalysts are characterized by TEM, XRD, EDS, TGA, and H-2-TPR. The electro-catalytic properties of electrodes are examined by cyclic voltammetry, CO-stripping, electrochemical impedance spectroscopy (EIS), and linear sweep voltammetry (LSV). Compared to Pt/MWCNTs, the Pt/MnOx-MWCNTs electro-catalyst exhibits about 3.3 times higher forward peak current density, during cyclic voltammetry, and 4.6 times higher exchange current density in methanol electro-oxidation reaction. In addition, deposition of manganese oxide onto MWCNTs dramatically increases the electrochemical active surface area from 29.7 for Pt/MWCNTs to 89.4 m(2) g(Pt)(-1) for Pt/MnOx-MWCNTs. The results of long-term cyclic voltammetry show superior stability of Pt nanoparticles upon addition of manganese oxide to the support. Furthermore, the kinetics of formation of the chemisorbed OH groups improves upon manganese oxide incorporation. This leads to a lower onset potential of COads oxidation on Pt/MnOx-MWCNTs than on Pt/MWCNTs. (C) 2014 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.