Improved performance using tungsten carbide/carbon nanofiber based anode catalysts for alkaline direct ethanol fuel cells

•WC/CNF catalyst had higher surface areas due to synergy effects between WC and p-CNF.•The WC/CNF catalysts showed improved kinetics for the ethanol oxidation compared to p-CNF.•The enhanced electro catalytic activity of the WC/CNF catalysts resulted in the good performance of ADEFCs.

Tungsten carbides (WC) nanoparticles on platelet type-carbon nanofibers (p-CNFs) catalysts have been synthesized for alkaline direct ethanol fuel cells (ADEFC). Physical properties of WC/CNFs samples with various WC contents are analyzed by transmission electron microscope (TEM), thermal gravimetric analysis (TGA) and nitrogen isotherm (BET). The WC/CNFs catalysts showed an improved kinetics for the ethanol oxidation than p-CNFs did. It indicates that the significant increase in the catalytic activity for ethanol oxidation on WC/CNFs than p-CNFs did due to the synergistic structural effect between WC nanoparticles and the p-CNFs supports. WC/CNFs also showed good performances in ADEFC single cells. The maximum current density of P4W3 and P4W4 was 9.0 and 4.4 mA cm−2, respectively. These catalysts can be used as the ethanol oxidation in direct ethanol fuel cells in alkaline media.