Effects of the Solvent and Calcination Temperature on LaFeO3 Catalysts for Methanol Oxidation

In this work, two types of solvents ethanol or water were used in preparation of the LaFeO3 catalysts by citrate sol gel method. The obtained samples were subjected to various calcination temperatures in order to study the catalytic activity and stability for methanol electro-oxidation by XRD, cyclic voltammetry and chronoamperometry. The crystallinity of the LaFeO3 phase in both cases is improved with increasing calcination temperature. The samples prepared using ethanol exhibit higher catalytic properties than those prepared in water for different calcination temperatures. Moreover, the catalyst prepared in ethanol and calcined at 1050 °C, exhibits a high catalytic activity in methanol electro-oxidation and is ~ two times greater than that obtained at 750 °C.