Highly active PtRuFe/C catalyst for methanol electro-oxidation

High methanol electro-oxidation activity was obtained on novel PtRuFe/C (2:1:1 at.%) catalyst. Mass and specific activities were 5.67 A  g−1 catal. and 177 mA m−2 for the PtRuFe/C catalyst while those of the commercial PtRu/C catalyst were 2.28 A g−1 catal. and 87.7 mA m−2, respectively. CO stripping results showed that on-set voltage for CO electro-oxidation was lowered by incorporation of Fe. XRD and XPS results revealed that Fe2O3 was formed instead of Fe(0), which resulted in large electron deficiency in Pt and easy CO electro-oxidation. The electron deficiency of Pt was proved by XPS results of Pt4f peaks, which moved to higher binding energies in PtRuFe/C than PtRu/C.