Superior methanol electrooxidation activity and CO tolerance of mesoporous helical nanospindle-like CeO₂modified Pt/C

Abstract

In an attempt to enhance the electrocatalytic activity and CO tolerance of ceria modified Pt/C electrodes, a novel structured ceria material has been developed. Left-handed helical CeO 2 nano-spindles with mesoporous structures were successfully synthesized through a template-free based precursor method on a large scale. By a microwave-assisted polyol synthesis process, the ceria modified Pt/C electrocatalysts were synthesized. The helical CeO 2 nanospindle based electrode Pt@Heli-CeO 2 /C exhibits superior electrochemically active surface areas, and significantly enhanced methanol oxidation catalytic activity and CO antipoisoning activity, compared to Pt/C and a nano-octahedral CeO 2 modified electrode Pt@Octa-CeO 2 /C. The experimental results show that Pt@Heli-CeO 2 /C possesses 8.2 times and 3.2 times higher activity for methanol electrooxidation than Pt/C and Pt@Octa-CeO 2 /C, respectively.This remarkable enhancement could be attributed to the reasons as follows: compared to octahedral CeO 2 , the unique helical CeO 2 is more conductive with better electron transfer and can provide more active surface sites to strengthen the support-metal interactions based on an electronic transfer mechanism from CeO 2 to Pt, thus helical CeO 2 can promote better dispersion of the Pt (0) nanocrystallites and a high concentration of metallic Pt(0) in the composition. ; Tel: +86 10 82317103 † Electronic supplementary information (ESI) available: TG result of CeO 2 -Heli-P; H 2 -TPR and N 2 adsorption-desorption isotherm results of the obtained ceria. See

Promoting effects of Fe 2 O 3 to Pt electrocatalysts toward methanol oxidation reaction in alkaline electrolyte

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Optically active multi-helical erythrocyte-like Ln(OH)CO3 (Ln = La, Ce, Pr and Sm)

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