Improving the Electrocatalytic Activities and CO Tolerance of Pt NPs by Incorporating TiO 2 Nanocubes onto Carbon Supports (original) (raw)

Designing efficient anode CO-tolerant electrocatalysts is critical in low-temperature fuel cell catalysts fueled either by H 2 /CO or alcohol. We demonstrate that the incorporation of TiO 2 nanocubes (TiO 2 NCs) on Carbon Vulcan supports, followed by the synthesis of Pt NPs at their surface (Pt/TiO 2 NCs-C material), led to improvements in performance towards the electrooxidation of carbon monoxide, ethanol, methanol, ethylene glycol, and glycerol in acidic media relative to the commercial Pt/C and Pt/ TiO 2-C counterparts employing commercial TiO 2. The nanocubes enabled changes in the electronic properties of Pt NPs while contributing to the bifunctional mechanism as compared to Pt/ C and Pt/TiO 2-C with commercial TiO 2. Fuel cell experiments fed with H 2 /CO steam showed that Pt/TiO 2 NCs-C employing nanocubes was resistant to CO-poisoning, yielding superior performance in operational conditions. The results reported herein have important implications for developing electrocatalysts with superior performances in PEMFCs.