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Niobium Dioxide Facilitating Methanol Electrooxidation on Pt/C Catalyst by Synergistic Effect
Author(s) -
Zhang N.,
Zhang S.,
Gao Y.,
Yin G.
Publication year - 2013
Publication title -
fuel cells
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.485
H-Index - 69
eISSN - 1615-6854
pISSN - 1615-6846
DOI - 10.1002/fuce.201300002
Subject(s) - methanol , direct methanol fuel cell , x ray photoelectron spectroscopy , catalysis , nanoparticle , natural bond orbital , methanol fuel , anode , materials science , transmission electron microscopy , electrocatalyst , electrochemistry , adsorption , chemical engineering , electron transfer , inorganic chemistry , chemistry , nanotechnology , electrode , photochemistry , organic chemistry , molecule , engineering
Abstract In this work, Pt nanoparticles are deposited on NbO 2 ‐modified carbon composites and evaluated as promising direct methanol fuel cell (DMFC) electrocatalysts. Transmission electron microscopy (TEM) and X‐ray diffraction (XRD) indicate that Pt nanoparticles (about 2.5 nm) are uniformly dispersed on NbO 2 ‐modified carbon composites. Electrochemical measurements show that the mass activity toward methanol electrooxidation on Pt/NbO 2 ‐C is as high as 3.0 times that of conventional Pt/C. Meanwhile, the onset potential of CO oxidation is negatively shifted by about 46 mV as compared with that of Pt/C, which means that the synergistic effect between NbO 2 and Pt facilitates the feasible removal of poisoning intermediate CO during methanol electrooxidation. X‐ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) characterizations reveal the electron transfer from Nb to Pt, which suppress the poisoning CO adsorption on Pt nanoparticles and facilitate methanol electrooxidation. NbO 2 nanoparticles facilitate methanol electrooxidation on Pt/C catalyst by synergistic effect and electronic effect, which represents a step in the right direction for the development of excellent fuel cell anode electrocatalysts.