Electrocatalytic performance comparison of Pt/V and Pd/V electrocatalysts for ethanol oxidation reaction E. L. da Silva, A. Cuña, S. Khan, M. Cadorin, S. Pianaro, R. B. Otto and C. F. Malfatti   2017/04/25

Abstrac

Direct ethanol fuel cells (DEFCs) operate at low temperature, which makes the oxidation and reduction reactions slower, requiring electrocatalysts able to accelerate these reactions. In the present work, commercial Vulcan carbon (V) supported Pt and Pd catalysts were compared as electrocatalysts for ethanol oxidation reaction (EOR) in acidic and alkaline medium, respectively. Cyclic voltammetries obtained in presence of ethanol showing a better catalytic performance for the Pd/V electroctalyst compared to the Pt/V electrocatalyst. The maximum current density related with the EOR in a 1.0 mol L-1 ethanol + 1.0 mol L-1 NaOH solution was 236.9 A g Pd-1 for Pd/V. The better performance of the Pd/V electrocatalyst can be associated with a lower Pd nanoparticles sizes and higher particles dispersion onto the Vulcan carbon surface in the Pd/V electrocatalyst. The onset potential for the EOR was 0.2 V vs. SCE for the Pt/V sample and -0.6 V vs. Hg/HgO for the Pd/V sample.

Authors and affiliations

E. L. da Silva(1), A. Cuña(2,1), S. Khan(1), M. Cadorin(1), S. Pianaro(3), R. B. Otto(4) and C. F. Malfatti(1)
1. LAPEC/PPGE3M, Universidade Federal do Rio Grande do Sul, Porto Alegre/RS (Brazil)
2. Cátedra de Fisicoquímica, DETEMA, Facultad de Química, Universidad de la República, Montevideo (Uruguay)
3. Departamento de Engenharia de Materiais, Universidade Estadual de Ponta Grossa, Ponta Grossa/PR (Brazil)
4. Automation and Simulation of Electrical Systems Laboratory (Lasse)- Itaipu. Foz do Iguaçu - Paraná (Brazil)

Key word

Energy conversion, Direct Ethanol Fuel Cells, Pt catalyst, Pd catalyst, Ethanol oxidation reaction.

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