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Electro‐oxidation of ethanol and bioethanol in direct alcohol fuel cells by microparticulated amorphous Ni 59 Nb 40 Pt 0.6 Cu 0.4 and Ni 59 Nb 40 Pt 0.6 Cu 0.2 Sn 0.2 alloys
Author(s) -
Barroso Javier,
Pierna Ángel R.,
Blanco Tamara C.,
del Val Juan J.
Publication year - 2011
Publication title -
physica status solidi (a)
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.532
H-Index - 104
eISSN - 1862-6319
pISSN - 1862-6300
DOI - 10.1002/pssa.201000730
Subject(s) - acetaldehyde , platinum , alcohol fuel , alloy , ethanol , catalysis , amorphous solid , chemical engineering , materials science , dehydrogenation , biofuel , tin , ethanol fuel , alcohol , amorphous metal , formic acid , inorganic chemistry , chemistry , metallurgy , organic chemistry , waste management , engineering
This work has focused on the development of metallic amorphous microparticulated alloys of composition Ni 59 Nb 40 Pt 0.6 Cu 0.4 and Ni 59 Nb 40 Pt 0.6 Cu 0.2 Sn 0.2 , obtained by mechanical alloying (MA), for use as anodes in direct alcohol fuel cells (DAFCs). The addition of copper modifies the electronic properties of platinum due to its special electronic configuration (3d 10 4s 1 ), demonstrating a better performance for ethanol/bioethanol electro‐oxidation. Ni 59 Nb 40 Pt 0.6 Cu 0.4 alloy provides higher current densities than Ni 59 Nb 40 Pt 0.6 Cu 0.2 Sn 0.2 alloy. In spite of tin significantly improving the tolerance to different adsorbed species such as CO, its presence does not improve the electro‐oxidation reaction due to limit the distribution of platinum atoms by the ligand effect, avoiding the final oxidation to CO 2 . In both alloys higher current densities were obtained for bioethanol electro‐oxidation than ethanol, due mainly to the presence of acetaldehyde, formic acid and another organic compounds (ppb), which may contribute to improvement of catalytic results.