Tantalum Carbide Doped by Fluorine as Non-precious Metal Anodic Electrocatalyst Superior to Pt/C for Glycerol-Oxidation

- New state electrocatalysts of TaCxFyOz/gC toward GOR were synthesized by a simple ion adsorbed methodology.
- X-ray absorption near edge structure (XANES) and extended X-ray absorption fine structure (EXAFS) spectroscopies were investigated to prove charge states and local electronic structures of TaCxFyOz/gC.
- TaCxFyOz/gC showed superior GOR catalytic activities than Pt/gC catalysts.
- GOR on TaCxFyOz/gC was via a poisoning-free mechanism, believed as the origin of the superior stability.

Fluorine (F) doped and partially oxidized tantalum carbide supported on graphitized carbon (TaCxFyOz/gC) as anodic non-precious metal electrocatalyst for glycerol oxidation reaction (GOR) has been successfully synthesized by a novel anion exchanged methodology. The bond length between Ta and F in TaCxFyOz is smallest than that of K2TaF7 and TaF5 measured by X-ray absorption fine structure (XAFS), implying much more positive charge distributed around Ta atoms than that of others. It is better for the chemisorption of alcohols and weaken CO bonds. This result indicates that the performance of GOR on TaCxFyOz/gC electrocatalysts is thermodynamically better than that on Pt/gC electrocatalysts and kinetics of GOR on TaCxFyOz/gC electrocatalysts are more favorable than Pt, Au and Ni based electrocatalysts.

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