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

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 ∼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.