Hydrodynamic Studies of Ethanol Oxidation at Pt and PtRu Catalysts at Elevated Temperatures

摘要

Oxidation of small organic molecules (SOM) has been one of the most active targets of investigation in electrochemistry for several decades. One of the main reasons is that SOM such as formic acid, methanol, and ethanol, can be used to produce electrical power through their oxidation in fuel cells, These devices have the potential to produce close to 100% energy efficiency in theory. However, practically this level of efficiency has not been achieved for SOM so far due to deficiencies such as slow and incomplete oxidation of the fuel. For enhancement of the energy efficiency, a comprehensive study of the electrocatalytic oxidation mechanisms and average number of exchanged electrons of SOM as fuels are fundamental. One of the widespread approaches for these studies is applying hydrodynamic methods due to their ability to emulate the hydrodynamic conditions of a fuel cell anode.