Glancing Angle Deposited Pt Nanorod Array Electrocatalysts for Direct Ethanol Fuel Cells

• Published in: International journal of electrochemical science 2017-11, Vol.12 (11), p.10447-10456
• Main Authors: Khudhayer, Wisam J., Allw, Ali S., Salman, Mohammed D., Karabacak, Tansel
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: D measurements; Direct Ethanol Fuel Cells; Electrooxidation of Ethanol; GLAD Pt nanorod arrays electrocatalysts; Glancing Angle Deposition (GLAD) technique
• ISSN: 1452-3981; 1452-3981
• DOI: 10.20964/2017.11.43

The catalytic activity of vertically aligned platinum nanorod arrays for ethanol electrooxidation has been evaluated utilizing cyclic voltammetry (CV) in 0.5 M H2SO4 and 0.5 M ethanol electrolyte at room temperature. The Pt nanorods electrodes were grown using a magnetron sputtering glancing angle deposition (GLAD) technique at different lengths (400 ad 600 nm long). The x-ray diffraction and SEM results reveal that that Pt nanorod are well-isolated, single crystal, and mainly oriented in Pt(100) which has the highest activity for ethanol adsorption and electrooxidation. The CV results show that the forward anodic current density (If) to the reverse anodic peak current density (Ib) ratio is calculated to be 4.8 and 7.2 for 400 and 600 nm Pt nanorods, respectively, while it is around 2.5 for a commercial high-surface-area-supported Pt (Pt/C) catalyst. Such high ratio for Pt nanorods electrocatalysts reflects the enhanced tolerance to the accumulation of carbonaceous species; a larger quantity of intermediate carbonaceous species is converted (oxidized) to CO2 in the forward scan compared to Pt/C, thus significantly enhancing the electrode electroactivity.