ISSN 2456-0235

International Journal of Modern Science and Technology

INDEXED IN 

International Journal of Modern Science and Technology, Vol. 2, No. 4, 2017, Pages 122-130.

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​Highly Dispersed Pt-Sn/GNS Catalysts for Ethanol Electro-Oxidation in Membraneless Fuel cells

S. Thilaga¹, V. Selvarani¹, S. Durga¹, S. Kiruthika², B. Muthukumaran¹,*
​¹Department of Chemistry, Presidency College, Chennai – 600 005, India.
²Department of Chemical Engineering, SRM University, Chennai – 603 203, India. 

*Corresponding author’s e-mail: dr.muthukumaran@yahoo.com

​Abstract
In the present work, Pt–Sn catalysts were synthesized on graphene nanosheets and their electrocatalytic activity for ethanol oxidation in membraneless fuel cell was investigated and compared with Vulcan XC-72R carbon supports. The physicochemical characterizations demonstrated that all the catalysts have the Pt face-centered cubic (fcc) structure with variations in the lattice parameter, indicating the incorporation of Sn after alloying. In comparison to carbon supports, the mean particle sizes of graphene-supported Pt–Sn catalysts were smaller. The electrochemical results obtained at room temperature showed that the Pt–Sn catalysts supported on graphene nanosheets showed superior electrochemical activity toward ethanol oxidation compared to Pt–Sn/Vulcan XC-72R. The enhancement of the electrocatalytic activities were discussed with respect to Pt–Sn alloy formation and the resulting modification of the electronic properties of Pt by Sn in the alloy structure. During the experiments performed on single membraneless fuel cells, graphene-supported Pt–Sn catalysts performed better than the carbon supported catalysts with power density of 37.5 mW cm-2. The better performance of graphene-supported catalysts may be due to the significant increase of electrochemical active surface area and the smaller particle size. 

​​Keywords: Ultrasonic-assisted chemical reduction; Graphene nanosheets; Sodium percarbonate; Membraneless fuel cells.

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