Improving the electrocatalytic activities and CO tolerance of Pt NPs by incorporating TiO2 nanocubes onto carbon supports

Abstract

Designing efficient anode CO-tolerant electrocatalysts is critical in low-temperature fuel cell catalysts fueled either by H2/CO or alcohol. We demonstrate that the incorporation of TiO2 nanocubes (TiO2NCs) on Carbon Vulcan supports, followed by the synthesis of Pt NPs at their surface (Pt/TiO2NCs-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/TiO2-C counterparts employing commercial TiO2. The nanocubes enabled changes in the electronic properties of Pt NPs while contributing to the bifunctional mechanism as compared to Pt/C and Pt/TiO2-C with commercial TiO2. Fuel cell experiments fed with H2/CO steam showed that Pt/TiO2NCs-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.