| Abstract: | The electrocatalytic activity and stability of Pt/C catalyst modified by using CeO_2-ZrO_2 mixed oxides for the alcohols electrochemical oxidation as probes were investigated. The catalyst samples were characterized by X-ray diffraction(XRD) and scanning electron microscopy(SEM). The electrochemical properties were measured by a three electrode system on electrochemical workstation(IVIUM). The results showed that the presence of CeO_2-ZrO_2 might be associated with the presence of Pt, which indicated that possibly there was synergistic effect between CeO_2-ZrO_2 and Pt nanoparticles. The electrocatalytic activity and stability of Pt-MO_x/C(M=Ce, Zr) for methanol and ethanol oxidation was better than that of Pt-CeO_2/C, which was attributed to that CeO_2-ZrO_2 composited oxides enhanced oxygen mobility and promoted oxygen storage capacity(OSC). Furthermore, the best performance was found when the molar ratio of CeO_2 to ZrO_2 was 2:1 for the oxidation of methanol and ethanol. The forward peak current density of Pt-MO_x/C(M=Ce, Zr, Ce:Zr=2:1) towards the methanol electrooxidation was about 3.8 times that of Pt-CeO_2/C. Pt-MO_x/C(M=Ce, Zr) appeared to be a promising and less expensive methanol oxidation anode catalyst. |
