Strategic synthesis of platinum@ionic liquid/carbon cathodic electrocatalyst with high activity and methanol tolerance for the oxygen reduction reaction

By Wu, Zhuqing; Wang, Ruofei; Zhai, Yanan; Li, Shuni; Chen, Pei
Published in International Journal of Hydrogen Energy NULL 2016

Abstract

Abstract Improving the electrocatalytic activity and methanol tolerance of cathodic Pt electrocatalyst for the oxygen reduction reaction (ORR) is very important for accelerating commercial viability of direct methanol fuel cells. In this work, the highly dispersed Vulcan XC-72 carbon supported 1-butyl-3-methylimidazolium chloride (BmimCl) ionic liquid modified Pt nanoparticles (Pt@BmimCl/XC-72) composites are synthesized successfully by simple NaBH4 reduction method in the presence of BmimCl ionic liquid. In the method, the interaction between BmimCl ionic liquid and {K2PtCl4} results in the generation of ultrafine BmimCl-PtII complex precipitate, which is responsible for the well dispersion and small particle size of final Pt@BmimCl/XC-72 composites. During the synthesis, the Pt nanoparticles are modified by BmimCl simultaneously due to the strong N-heterocycle-Pt interaction. The as-prepared Pt@BmimCl/XC-72 composites exhibit significantly improved activity and selectivity for the {ORR} in the presence of methanol in acidic media compared to Pt/XC-72 composites prepared by general NaBH4 reduction method.

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