Boosting catalytic activity toward methanol oxidation reaction for platinum via heterostructure engineering

Fang Luo; Yingjie Yu; Xue Long; Chen Li; Tiantian Xiong; Zehui Yang

doi:10.1016/j.jcis.2023.11.077

Boosting catalytic activity toward methanol oxidation reaction for platinum via heterostructure engineering

J Colloid Interface Sci. 2024 Feb 15:656:450-456. doi: 10.1016/j.jcis.2023.11.077. Epub 2023 Nov 14.

Authors

Fang Luo¹, Yingjie Yu¹, Xue Long², Chen Li³, Tiantian Xiong², Zehui Yang⁴

Affiliations

¹ State Key Laboratory of New Textile Materials & Advanced Processing Technology, College of Materials Science and Engineering, Wuhan Textile University, 430200, PR China.
² Hubei Hydrogen Energy Technology Innovation Center, Faculty of Materials Science and Chemistry, China University of Geosciences Wuhan, 388 Lumo RD, Wuhan 430074, PR China.
³ State Key Laboratory of New Textile Materials & Advanced Processing Technology, College of Materials Science and Engineering, Wuhan Textile University, 430200, PR China. Electronic address: cli@wtu.edu.cn.
⁴ Hubei Hydrogen Energy Technology Innovation Center, Faculty of Materials Science and Chemistry, China University of Geosciences Wuhan, 388 Lumo RD, Wuhan 430074, PR China. Electronic address: yeungzehui@gmail.com.

PMID: 38006867
DOI: 10.1016/j.jcis.2023.11.077

Abstract

Direct methanol fuel cell (DMFC) is hampered by the sluggish methanol oxidation reaction. In this work, we have invited rhodium phosphides (Rh₂P) to platinum (Pt) as robust MOR electrocatalyst ascribing the excellent water dissociation capability of Rh₂P to generate Pt(OH)_ads species to mitigate the CO poisoning. MOR mass activity of Rh₂P-Pt/C is enhanced by 2- and 3.5-time with relative to commercial Pt/C and PtRu/C, respectively; additionally, the CO anti-poisoning ability is also boosted by 2.4 folds than Pt/C. The in-situ electrochemical impedance spectroscopy test reveals that the water dissociation is accelerated by Rh₂P; moreover, the mutual electronic interplay between Pt and Rh₂P contributes to a superior resistance towards electrochemical dissolution and coalescence. The theoretical investigation also indicates that d band center of Pt in Rh₂P-Pt is downshifted resulting in a lower CO binding strength.

Keywords: CO poisoning; Direct methanol fuel cell; In-situ electrochemical impedance spectroscopy; Rhodium phosphides.