A Pt-Co3O4-CD electrocatalyst with enhanced electrocatalytic performance and resistance to CO poisoning achieved by carbon dots and Co3O4 for direct methanol fuel cells

Yue Sun; Yunjie Zhou; Cheng Zhu; Lulu Hu; Mumei Han; Aoqi Wang; Hui Huang; Yang Liu; Zhenhui Kang

doi:10.1039/c7nr01727h

A Pt-Co₃O₄-CD electrocatalyst with enhanced electrocatalytic performance and resistance to CO poisoning achieved by carbon dots and Co₃O₄ for direct methanol fuel cells

Nanoscale. 2017 May 4;9(17):5467-5474. doi: 10.1039/c7nr01727h.

Authors

Yue Sun¹, Yunjie Zhou, Cheng Zhu, Lulu Hu, Mumei Han, Aoqi Wang, Hui Huang, Yang Liu, Zhenhui Kang

Affiliation

¹ Jiangsu Key Laboratory for Carbon-based Functional Materials and Devices, Institute of Functional Nano and Soft Materials (FUNSOM), Soochow University, Suzhou, China. zhkang@suda.edu.cn yangl@suda.edu.cn hhuang0618@suda.edu.cn.

PMID: 28426049
DOI: 10.1039/c7nr01727h

Abstract

Highly efficient electrocatalysts remain huge challenges in direct methanol fuel cells (DMFCs). Here, a Pt-Co₃O₄-CDs/C composite was fabricated as an anode electrocatalyst with low Pt content (12 wt%) by using carbon dots (CDs) and Co₃O₄ nanoparticles as building blocks. The Pt-Co₃O₄-CDs/C composite catalyst shows a significantly enhanced electrocatalytic activity (1393.3 mA mg^-1 Pt), durability (over 4000 s) and CO-poisoning tolerance. The superior catalytic activity should be attributed to the synergistic effect of CDs, Pt and Co₃O₄. Furthermore, the Pt-Co₃O₄-CDs/C catalyst was integrated into a single cell, which exhibits a maximum power density of 45.6 mW cm^-2, 1.7 times the cell based on the commercial 20 wt% Pt/C catalyst.