Pt and Pt-Sn nanoparticles decorated conductive polymer-biowaste ash composite for direct methanol fuel cell

The present work is focused on the synthesis of platinum (Pt)and platinum-tin (Pt-Sn) nanoparticles decorated poly(aniline)-rice husk ash (PANI-RHA) composite by the chemical reduction of their respective metal salts. The obtained Pt/PANI-RHA and Pt-Sn/PANI-RHA composites were characterized by FT-IR, XRD, SEM, EDAX and HR-TEM analysis. Platinum nanoparticles were also decorated on RHA and PANI for comparative studies. The synthesized electrocatalysts have been subjected to electrooxidation of methanol by cyclic voltammetry. It has been concluded that the Pt nanoparticles decorated PANI-RHA composite exhibits a remarkable enhancement for the electrochemical oxidation of methanol when compared with Pt/PANI and Pt/RHA composites. So, PANI-RHA composite has proven to be a good supporting material for alcohol fuel cell applications. Further, Pt-Sn bimetallic nanoparticles decorated PANI-RHA composite exhibit a remarkable enhancement for the electrochemical oxidation of methanol compared to that of Pt/PANI-RHA catalyst. Hence, the above results suggest that Pt-Sn/PANI-RHA composite is a potent and low cost electrocatalyst for fuel cell industries.