Particle size effects of sulfonated graphene supported Pt nanoparticles on ethanol electrooxidation

Chia Liang Sun*, Jui Shiang Tang, Nicolas Brazeau, Jhing Jhou Wu, Spyridon Ntais, Chung Wei Yin, Hung Lung Chou, Elena A. Baranova

*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to journalJournal Article peer-review

52 Scopus citations

Abstract

Fuel cells are promising alternative in automobile and stationary power generation. Direct ethanol fuel cells (DEFCs) offer significant advantages due to the non-toxicity and renewability of ethanol as well as its high power density. Development of the efficient catalysts for ethanol oxidation reaction (EOR) has attracted great attention and represents one of the major challenges in electrocatalysis. Graphene, one-atom thick nanocarbon materials, has attracted much attention recently in a variety of applications. The sulfonation of graphene is able to make it hydrophilic, which enhances its dispersibility in aqueous solvents. Furthermore, sulfonation increases the adsorption and uniform distribution of the Pt nanoparticles, which increases both the electrocatalytic activity and the durability. In this study, theoretical calculations demonstrated that the sulfonate functional group can donate charge to Pt, enhanced the adsorption energy of Pt, and then reduce the adsorption energy of CO on Pt. Then experimentally five kinds of Pt/sulfonated-graphene (Pt/sG) catalysts were synthesized via the control of pH values during the preparation of five-selected colloidal nanoparticles. Among all catalysts, Pt-sG(2.5 nm) has the highest peak current density in EOR.

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)282-289
Number of pages8
JournalElectrochimica Acta
Volume162
DOIs
StatePublished - 20 04 2015

Bibliographical note

Publisher Copyright:
© 2014 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Keywords

  • Pt nanoparticle
  • ethanol oxidation reaction
  • fuel cell
  • particle size effect grapheme

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