Optimum condition for the growth of Pt-CeO2 nanocomposite electrodes for thin-film fuel cells

Abstract

We fabricated three types of nanocomposite electrodes consisting of different amounts of metallic Pt nanostructures and amorphous CeO2 using a co-sputtering method and investigated the optimum conditions for enhancing their electro-oxidation properties in direct methanol thin-film fuel cells. The high-resolution electron microscopy, X-ray diffraction, and X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy results show the formation of metallic Pt nanostructures embedded within an amorphous CeO2 matrix (i.e., Pt-CeO2 nanocomposite). The cyclic voltammetry and chronoamperometry results demonstrate that the nanocomposite electrode containing similar to 87.2 wt% of Pt shows the best catalytic activity of methanol electro-oxidation, the highest electrochemical active surface (EAS) area, and the best electrochemical stability among the three samples for direct methanol thin-film fuel cells. (C) 2008 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.