PtRh based electrocatalyst for direct ethanol fuel cells

• Main Author: Xie, Bi Fen
• Other Authors: Jiang San Ping
• Format: Final Year Project
• Language: English
• Published: 2010
• Subjects: DRNTU::Engineering::Chemical engineering::Industrial electrochemistry
• Online Access: http://hdl.handle.net/10356/40624
• Institution: Nanyang Technological University

Research and experiments were carried out to various synthesized metal alloy electrocatalysts for better understanding on its performance for ethanol oxidation. In this report, electrocatalysts were subjected to different metal compositions in searching of better performance alloy electrocatalysts. Metals such as platinum (Pt), Rhodium (Rh), Nickel (Ni) and Cobalt (Co) were used in alloying for the formation of electrocatalyst, and chemicals for instance, the Sodium Borohydride (NaBH4) and Ethyl Glycol (EG) were used as reducing agent in the experiments. Cyclic voltammogram and chronoampergrams were also performed to aid in analyzing the collected data for hydrogen and ethanol oxidation activities of the electrocatalyst. And with the gathered tabulated results, it was proven that platinum and rhodium (PtRh) and platinum, rhodium, nickel (Pt75Rh15Ni10) electrocatalysts were capable of better performance compared with the rest of electrocatalysts. Possible errors attributed to the results causing other platinum (Pt) metal alloy electrocatalysts not performing as good were highlighted. These errors were sought to be modified in searching of better performance and cost saving of metal alloy electrocatalysts.