Issue 2, 2020

High-performance alcohol electrooxidation on Pt3Sn–SnO2 nanocatalysts synthesized through the transformation of Pt–Sn nanoparticles

Abstract

In this work, Pt3Sn–SnO2 supported on N-doped graphene (Pt3Sn–SnO2/NG) was synthesized through the in situ transformation of Pt–Sn/NG by annealing in an air atmosphere. The Pt3Sn–SnO2/NG catalyst, characterized by XRD, TEM and HRTEM, forms an ordered Pt3Sn intermetallic in which every Pt3Sn nanoparticle (NP) is in close contact with one or more SnO2 NPs. The Pt3Sn–SnO2/NG catalyst shows outstanding performance towards the ethanol oxidation reaction (EOR) and methanol oxidation reaction (MOR). The mass activity for EOR on the Pt3Sn–SnO2/NG catalyst is 469 mA mgPt−1 at 0.7 V, which is more than 10 times that of the commercial Pt/C catalyst (44 mA mgPt−1). The Pt3Sn–SnO2/NG catalyst is found to have more than three times the stability of the commercial Pt/C. Our Pt3Sn–SnO2/NG catalyst also delivers increased activity and higher stability for MOR compared with the Pt/C catalyst. In addition, the Pt3Sn–SnO2/NG catalyst is observed to have a higher CO tolerance compared with Pt/C. The high activity and stability of the Pt3Sn–SnO2/NG catalyst can be attributed to the unique structure of Pt3Sn–SnO2, formed by the in situ transformation of Pt–Sn/NG, which induces the formation of a small-sized ordered Pt3Sn intermetallic that strongly interacts with SnO2. The synergetic effect between the ordered Pt3Sn and SnO2 enhances the activity towards EOR and MOR through the Sn in both Pt3Sn and SnO2, which facilitates the removal of COads on the adjacent Pt active sites at low potentials by providing OHads species; it also improves stability because of the strong Pt3Sn–SnO2 interactions.

Graphical abstract: High-performance alcohol electrooxidation on Pt3Sn–SnO2 nanocatalysts synthesized through the transformation of Pt–Sn nanoparticles

Supplementary files

Article information

Article type
Paper
Submitted
02 Oct 2019
Accepted
29 Nov 2019
First published
02 Dec 2019

J. Mater. Chem. A, 2020,8, 592-598

High-performance alcohol electrooxidation on Pt3Sn–SnO2 nanocatalysts synthesized through the transformation of Pt–Sn nanoparticles

L. Wang, W. Wu, Z. Lei, T. Zeng, Y. Tan, N. Cheng and X. Sun, J. Mater. Chem. A, 2020, 8, 592 DOI: 10.1039/C9TA10886F

To request permission to reproduce material from this article, please go to the Copyright Clearance Center request page.

If you are an author contributing to an RSC publication, you do not need to request permission provided correct acknowledgement is given.

If you are the author of this article, you do not need to request permission to reproduce figures and diagrams provided correct acknowledgement is given. If you want to reproduce the whole article in a third-party publication (excluding your thesis/dissertation for which permission is not required) please go to the Copyright Clearance Center request page.

Read more about how to correctly acknowledge RSC content.

Social activity

Spotlight

Advertisements