Application of nano-sized nanoporous zinc 2-methylimidazole metal-organic framework for electrocatalytic oxidation of methanol in alkaline solution

•ZIF-8 nanoparticles are synthesized using a rapid and template-free method.•For the first time, nickel species doped ZIF-8 modified CPE (Ni/ZIF-8CPE) is prepared.•Ni/ZIF-8CPE is used as an electrocatalyst for methanol oxidation.•The modified electrode shows good catalytic activity and acceptable stability.

In this work, a novel non-platinum group metals (non-PGM) catalyst based on modified zinc 2-methylimidazole metal-organic framework (ZIF-8) is proposed and used for electrooxidation of methanol. Nano-sized particles of nonporous ZIF-8 are synthesized at room temperature using a simple template-free method. The synthesized ZIF-8 nanoparticles are characterized by X-ray diffraction, scanning electronic microscopy and nitrogen adsorption-desorption techniques. In order to decrease the overvoltage of methanol oxidation on carbon paste electrode (CPE), nickel species doped ZIF-8 modified carbon paste electrode (Ni/ZIF-8CPE) is fabricated as a modified electrode. Electrochemical techniques such as cyclic voltammetry and chronoamperometry are used to investigate the electrocatalytic activity of Ni/ZIF-8CPE toward methanol oxidation in alkaline solution. Cyclic voltammetry results show that oxidation current is considerably increased using Ni/ZIF-8CPE in comparison with unmodified CPE. Catalytic rate constant of methanol oxidation on Ni/ZIF-8CPE is obtained using chronoamperometric studies. Besides the good catalytic activity of the modified electrode toward methanol oxidation, it has other advantages such as simple preparation, ease of operation, good stability and low cost, which can be promising in the field of preparation of non-PGM electrocatalysts for application in fuel cells.

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