Effect of Ni on graphene supported Pt–Ru binary catalyst for borohydride electro-oxidation

Abstract

Catalysts of Pt–Ni, Pt–Ru and Pt–Ru–Ni supported on graphene are prepared using Bonnemann reduction method to study the electro-oxidation of sodium borohydride in membraneless fuel cell. The prepared electrocatalysts were characterized by transmission electron microscopy (TEM), energy dispersive X-ray spectroscopy (EDX) and X-ray diffraction (XRD) analyses. The synthesized catalysts had similar particle morphology, and their particle sizes were 3-5 nm. The electrocatalytic activities were examined by cyclic voltammetry (CV) and chronoamperometry (CA). The electrochemical results

obtained at room temperature indicated that the ternary Pt–Ru–Ni/G (60:30:10) catalyst displayed better catalytic activity for sodium borohydride oxidation compared with the other prepared catalysts. During the experiments performed on single membraneless fuel cell, Pt–Ru–Ni/G (60:30:10) performed better among all the catalysts prepared with power density of 35.61 mWcm─2. The better performance of ternary Pt–Ru–Ni/G catalysts may be due to the formation of a ternary alloy and the smaller particle size.