Mild synthesis of layer-by-layer SnO2 nanosheet/Pt/graphene composites as catalysts for ethanol electro-oxidation

摘要

We designed and synthesized a layer-by-layer SnO2/Pt/graphene electro-catalyst through multi-microwave method. The experimental results show that the activity for the ethanol oxidation strongly depends on the content of graphene and the highest catalytic activity occurs at similar to 30 wt%, followed by similar to 40 wt%, and similar to 20 wt%. Without any other metal component, the ultrathin SnO2/Pt/graphene exhibits enhanced not only EOR activity but also durability compared with Pt/graphene. More importantly, the differential electrochemical mass spectrometry (DEMS) study reveals that the layer-by-layer ultrathin SnO2/Pt/graphene composites induces improved selectivity to acetic acid (CH3COOH) and carbon dioxide (CO2) compared to Pt/graphene. The present work sheds light on ways to optimize electro-catalysts for EOR by smartly tailoring the nanostructure of composition of materials based on platinum, metal oxide and carbon. (C) 2016 Hydrogen Energy Publications LLC. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.