cerium-promoted ptru/mwnts as the anode catalyst for methanol electro-oxidation

in the present study, ptruce/mwnts nanocatalysts synthesized via polyol process technique are applied as anode electro-catalyst in methanol electro-oxidation reaction (mor). to characterize the nanocatalysts, tem, xrd, eds and xps are investigated. cyclic voltammetry and choronoamperometry are used to evaluate the electro-catalytic activity and stability of the catalysts in methanol electro-oxidation, respectively. further addition of the ce promoter to mwnts-supported ptru nanocatalyst shows the highest activity and the lowest onset potential in mor at ce to pt molar ratio of 0.7. a significant enhancement of the forward anodic peak in cyclic voltammetry experiments is observed for the ce-promoted ptru catalyst with cerium to platinum molar ratio of 0.7, i.e. 349 ma/cm2.mgpt , in comparison with 182 ma/cm2.mgpt and 251 ma/cm2.mgpt , respectively, corresponding to pt/mwnts and ptru(1:1)/mwnts nanocatalysts. furthermore, the chronoamperommetry results present a remarkable improvement in the final current density of ptruce/mwnts (6.1 ma/cm2), compared to the un-promoted catalysts, having a decreasing propensity, i.e. ptru/mwnts (3.7 ma/cm2) and pt/mwnts (2.05 ma/cm2.mgcat). the improved performance of ptruce/mwnts may be attributed to the formation of highly-dispersed pt nanoparticles on the support, followed by a significant enhancement of bifunctional mechanism, as a result of cerium incorporation.