Investigation Of The Electrocatalytic Oxidation Of Ethanol On Stainless Steel Electrodes

Direct alcohols fuel cell (DAFC) has been intensively researched and developed in recent years, because of its environmental protection, raw materials into renewable research hotspot. It is necessary to develop new catalysts with high performance for electrooxidation of micromolecule alcohols.PANi/SS electrode has been prepared by electrochemical polymerizing PANi on SS electrode with the pluse potentiostatic method. And PtSn-PANi/SS electrode has been prepared by depositing Pt micropartical and Sn micropartical on above PANi/SS electrode with the pluse potentiostatic methods. Effect of electrochemical parameters on electrocatalytic properties of PANi/SS electrode prepared with pulsating potential method (PPM) was investigated using cyclic voltammetry (CV), electrochemical impedance spectroscopy (EIS) and scanning electron microcopy (SEM). The results of SEM indicated that the mesh structural PANi films prepared with PPM were provided with splendid mechanical character and high specific surface area, appropriate to be the matrix to load activators. In this paper, studies on oxidation phenomena of methanol on PtSn-PANi/Pt electrode, ethanol on Pt-PANi/Pt electrode, and effect of preparing process on electrocatalytic properties, were carried out.Pt-PANi/SS electrode has been propared with pulsating potential method (PPM). Effect of electrochemical parameters on electrocatalytic properties of Pt-PANi/SS electrode prepared with pulsating potential method (PPM) was investigated using cyclic voltammetry (CV), electrochemical impedance spectroscopy (EIS) and scanning electron microcopy (SEM). The result of SEM shows that Pt particle on the Pt-PANi/SS electrode is sphere, smooth surface and the same diamete,the diameter of which is about 50nm. Pt particles are distributed on the fiber of PANi, which can improve the specific surface area of catalyst.PANi/SS electrode has been prepared by electrochemical polymerizing PANi on SS electrode with the pluse potentiostatic method. And PtSn-PANi/SS electrode has been prepared by depositing Pt micropartical and Sn micropartical on above PANi/SS electrode with the pluse potentiostatic methods. The catalytic activity toward ethanol have been characterized by cyclic voltammetry testing(CV); The mass ratio has been analysed by EDS; The surface condition and crystal mode have been analysed by SEM and XRD, respectively. The result indicate that after loading Sn, the Pt and Sn have became alloy, while the catalytic activity of electrode toward ethanol increases. The influence of capacity of electrodepositing Sn microparticles on the catalytic of composite electrode toward was investigated as well. The highest catalytic activity of the composite electrode toward ethanol can be obtained when the mass ratio between Pt and Sn is 1:1(the capacity of Pt loading is 215μg.cm-2). The inluence of reaction temperature on the catalytic activity of composite electrode toward ethanol was investigated. The appearent active energy of PtSn-PANi/SS is 27.2 kJ mol-1.