Novel chemical synthesis of Pt–Ru–P electrocatalysts by hypophosphite deposition for enhanced methanol oxidation and CO tolerance in direct methanol fuel cell

A novel method was developed to prepare the highly active Pt–Ru–P/C catalyst. The deposition of phosphorus significantly increased electrochemical active surface (EAS) area of catalyst by reduces Pt–Ru particle size. TEM images show that Pt–Ru–P nanoparticles have an uniform size distribution with an average diameter of 2 nm. Cyclic voltammetry (CV), Chronoamperometry (CA), and CO stripping indicate that the presence of non-metal phosphorus as an interstitial species Pt–Ru–P/C catalyst shows high activity for the electro-oxidation of methanol, and exhibit enhanced performance in the oxidation of carbon monoxide compared with Pt–Ru/C catalyst. At 30 °C and pure oxygen was fed to the cathode, the maximum power density of direct methanol fuel cell (DMFC) with Pt–Ru–P/C and Pt–Ru/C catalysts as anode catalysts was 61.5 mW cm−2 and 36.6 mW cm−2, respectively. All experimental results indicate that Pt–Ru–P/C catalyst was the optimum anode catalyst for direct methanol fuel cell.