This study has investigated the oxidation of methanol (CH3OH) on a novel bimetallic Ni–Ti nanoparticle-modified indium tin oxide electrode (Ni–Ti NP/ITO) fabricated by the ion implantation method.
Direct methanol fuel cells (DMFCs) have been seen as one of the desirable power sources, and the performance always depends on the ability of electrode materials to oxidize methanol. In this work, we report a novel electrode composed of coral-like Pd and porous MnO 2 nanosheet arrays on nickel foam (Pd−MnO 2 /NF). MnO 2 and Pd are successively electrodeposited on NF with different concentrations of PdCl 2 , which decides the shape of Pd and catalytic properties. Compared with Pd/NF, Pd−MnO 2 /NF exhibits excellent catalytic performance and good stability for methanol oxidation in alkaline solution. The mass activity of Pd−MnO 2 /NF with low Pd loading is 197.7 mA mg −1 , which is 2.3-fold higher than that of Pd/NF. The improvement of performance mainly comes from MnO 2 , which supplies a number of oxygen atoms to reduce intermediates and enhance antipoisoning ability.
In this study, cobalt-nanoparticles (CoNPs) are directly synthesized on Ni foam by ion implantation to catalyze methanol electro-oxidation in alkaline medium, which is simple, cheap, environmentally friendly and easy to mass production. Several techniques, including scanning electron microscopy (SEM), powder X-ray diffraction (XRD), X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) and energy-dispersive X-ray spectroscopy (EDS) have been employed to characterize the physicochemical properties of the as-prepared electrode. The electro-catalytic performances are investigated by cyclic voltammetry (CV), electrochemical impedance spectroscopy (EIS) and chronoamperometry (CA). The CoNPs/NF electrode shows prominent electro-catalytic activity toward the electro-oxidation of methanol because of the well preserved 3D mesoporous structure of Ni foam, which can provide adequate open spaces and shorter ion diffusion paths to increase the electrode/electrolyte contact interface and active sites for reaction.
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