Niobium Dioxide Facilitating Methanol Electrooxidation on Pt/C Catalyst by Synergistic Effect

作者：Zhang N; Zhang S; Gao Y; Yin G^*

来源：Fuel Cells, 2013, 13(5): 895-902.

DOI：10.1002/fuce.201300002

• Electronic Transfer
• Methanol Electrooxidation
• NbO2-Modified Carbon Composites
• Pt Nanoparticles
• Synergistic Effect

In this work, Pt nanoparticles are deposited on NbO2-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 2.5nm) are uniformly dispersed on NbO2-modified carbon composites. Electrochemical measurements show that the mass activity toward methanol electrooxidation on Pt/NbO2-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 46mV as compared with that of Pt/C, which means that the synergistic effect between NbO2 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. NbO2 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.

• 出版日期2013-10
• 单位哈尔滨工业大学