Carbon-Supported Pt-Pd Alloy as a Methanol-Tolerant-Oxygen-Reduction Electro-Catalyst for DMFCs

Abstract

High-performance methanol-tolerant Pt-Pd alloy on carbon with varying Pt:Pd atomic ratio of 1:1, 2:1 and 3:1 was prepared by a facile wet-chemical method and characterized by XRD, FESEM and EDX techniques. The optimum atomic weight ratio of Pt to Pd in the carbon-supported alloy catalyst as established by linear-sweep voltammetry (LSV) and cell-polarization studies is determined to be 2:1. A direct methanol fuel cell (DMFC) comprising a carbon-supported Pt-Pd(2:1) alloy (1mgPt /cm2) as the cathode catalyst delivers a peak-power density of 115 mW/cm2 at 70°C in contrast with the peak-power density value of 60mW/cm2 delivered by the DMFC with carbon-supported Pt catalyst operating under similar conditions.