Abstract

BONESI, A.; TRIACA, W. E.  and  LUNA, A. M. Castro. Nanocatalysts for Ethanol Oxidation: Synthesis and Characterisation. Port. Electrochim. Acta [online]. 2009, vol.27, n.3, pp.193-201. ISSN 0872-1904.

Carb on-supported binary PtSn/C and ternary PtSnNi/C catalysts were prepared for the electro-oxidation of ethanol. The carbon-supported nanoparticles were synthesised by employing a modified polyol methodology and characterised in terms of structure, morphology and composition by using XRD, EDX and TEM techniques. Their electro-catalytic behaviour for ethanol oxidation (EO) was investigated by employing a disc-composite electrode covered by a thin layer of catalyst imbedded in a Nafion polymer electrolyte film. An enhancement of the EO through a negative shift of the onset oxidation potential and higher current density at constant potentials were observed on the PtSnNi/C electrodes as compared to those for PtSn/C electrodes. The temperature was changed in the range 40 ºC ≤ t ≤ 80 ºC, and the variation of the activation energy calculated by linear regression of the Arrhenius plots.

Keywords : tin; nickel; platinum; ethanol; polyol; catalyst.

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