Rare Earth Eu Doped PtRu/C Catalysts and Their Properties for Methanol Electrooxidation

Abstract

Commercially available PtRu/C catalyst was doped with Eu by chemical reduction and sintering, resulting in PtRuEux/C catalysts with different Eu contents. The catalysts were characterized by transmission electron microscopy (TEM), energy dispersive X-ray (EDX) spectroscopy, X-ray diffraction (XRD), and X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS). Results showed that Eu doping did not change the average size of the PtRu/C catalysts (ca 3 nm), and their surfaces were modified by both Eu metal and oxide. Cyclic voltammetry and chronoamperometry demonstrated that the activity of the PtRuEux/C catalysts was higher than that of commercial PtRu/C for methanol electrooxidation. Among the PtRuEux/C catalysts, PtRuEu0.3/C exhibited the best performance. The electrocatalytic oxidation of methanol on the catalyst was further investigated by in situ Fourier transform infrared (FTIR) spectroscopy at molecular level. Results indicated that the adsorbed species derived from the dissociative adsorption of methanol on the catalysts were linear. bonded CO (COL). Eu doping decreased the oxidation potential of COL and thus significantly enhanced the activity of the catalysts and their tolerance to CO.