Comparative study for electrochemical and Single-Cell performance of a novel MXene-Supported Platinum–Ruthenium catalyst for Direct methanol fuel cell application

• Published in: Journal of electroanalytical chemistry (Lausanne, Switzerland) Switzerland), 2022-11, Vol.925, p.116884, Article 116884
• Main Authors: Abdullah, Norulsamani, Rahman, Saidur, Mohd Zainoodin, Azran, Aslfattahi, Navid
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Anodic electrocatalyst; Bimetals; Charge transfer; Comparative studies; Direct methanol fuel cell; Electrocatalysts; Electrochemical measurement; Energy sources; Fuel cells; Intermetallic compounds; Methanol; MXene; MXenes; Performance enhancement; Platinum; Ruthenium; Single cell performance
• ISSN: 1572-6657; 1873-2569
• DOI: 10.1016/j.jelechem.2022.116884

•Novel formulation of bimetal embedded on MXene structure.•Latest two dimensional materials with ceramic and metal-like category.•Comparative study on electrochemical and DMFC single cell performance.•Promising anodic electrocatalyst for methanol oxidation reaction.•High electrochemical surface area and intrinsic activity leads to high performance. Direct methanol fuel cell (DMFC) is one of the reliable sources of energy owing to numerous benefits it offers and its suitability for portable electronic applications. Therefore, this study aims to overcome the main issues confronting anodic electrocatalyst part by introducing the novel formulation of platinum–ruthenium (PtRu) bimetal into the 2D Ti3C2Tx structure to boost the electrocatalytic activity and single-cell performance. A comparative study for electrochemical measurement and DMFC performance is conducted between as-synthesized electrocatalyst PtRu/Ti3C2Tx and two other electrocatalysts, PtRu/C and Pt/C. This comparative study between electrocatalyst revealed that PtRu/Ti3C2Tx exhibits the highest electrochemical surface area (55 m2 g-1), electrocatalytic and intrinsic activity (449 mA mgPtRu−1/ 1.36 mA cmECSA−2), carbon monoxide tolerance (1.56), and smallest charge-transfer resistance (2.66 Ω) compared with other electrocatalysts. Furthermore, the validation by DMFC single-cell test showed that PtRu/Ti3C2Tx electrocatalyst improves the performance almost 70 % compared to the Pt/C electrocatalyst. This excellent electrochemical and single-cell performance of PtRu/Ti3C2Tx electrocatalyst validates its potential to be one of the promising candidates for the anodic electrocatalyst in DMFC application.