Enhanced activity of Pt/CNTs anode catalyst for direct methanol fuel cells using Ni_2P as co-catalyst

摘要

Highlights•Pt/CNTs catalysts with big Pt nanoparticle size showed promising activity and good stability.•Carbon nanotubes support Pt was regulated using Ni2P to enhance its stability and activity.•The incorporation of Ni2P made Pt nanoparticle size decreased and dispersion more homogeneous.AbstractThe direct methanol fuel cell is a promising energy conversion device because of the utilization of the state-of-the-art platinum (Pt) anode catalyst. In this work, novel Pt/Ni2P/CNTs catalysts were prepared by the H2reduction method. It was found that the activity and stability of Pt for methanol oxidation reaction (MOR) could be significantly enhanced while using nickel phosphide (Ni2P) nanoparticles as co-catalyst. X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy revealed that the existence of Ni2P affected the particle size and electronic distribution of Pt obviously. Pt/CNTs catalyst, Pt/Ni2P/CNTs catalysts with different Ni2P amount were synthesized, among which Pt/6%Ni2P/CNTs catalyst exhibited the best MOR activity of 1400mAmg−1Pt, which was almost 2.5 times of the commercial Pt/C-JM catalyst. Moreover, compared to other Pt-based catalysts, this novel Pt/Ni2P/CNTs catalyst also exhibited higher onset current density and better steady current density. The result of this work may provide positive guidance to the research on high efficiency and stability of Pt-based catalyst for direct methanol fuel cells.