Synthesis Of Ni-based Nanomaterial Catalysts And Application For Methanol Fuel Cell

In recent years,with the rapid development of human society,the increase in fossil fuel consumption has caused severe environmental degradation and global warming.The energy crisis has become a concern of people,and it is urgent to seek a new type of green,environment-friendly and renewable energy to replace non-renewable energy sources such as traditional fossil fuels.As an energy conversion device,direct methanol fuel cell(DMFC)has attracted the attention of many researchers due to its advantages such as high energy density,environmental friendliness,simple structure,safe storage and transportation,and easy portability.However,at present,DMFC generally has problems such as low catalytic activity,high cost and short life,which seriously hinder its commercial development.In this paper,starting from the low-cost non-precious metal Ni,the methanol oxidation(MOR)performance of NiCu alloy and Ni O catalyst is studied,and a new type of DMFC anode catalyst with low cost,environmental friendliness,good electrocatalytic activity and strong stability is obtained.The specific research contents are as follows:1.In this paper,NiCu alloy nanoparticles were synthesized by a simple one-pot method.The morphology and size of the materials were controlled by reducing agent and end sealing agent,and the effect of reaction temperature on the MOR catalytic activity of NiCu alloy nanoparticles was further investigated.The best performing NiCu-220 electrocatalyst achieved a mass current density of 1028 m A mg^-1_metal.The good catalytic activity is mainly attributed to the following aspects:the electronic effect caused by alloying is beneficial to improve the MOR activity of the bimetallic catalyst;Cu in the NiCu alloy catalyst helps to suppress the production of the low activity substance?-Ni OOH.2.Using technologies such as water(solvent)heat and calcination,Ni O nanomaterials with different morphologies were synthesized,including hollow spheres and nanosheets of different sizes.The hollow spheres Ni O showed good MOR catalytic activity and stability in electrochemical tests.Compared with the other two kinds of Ni O nanosheets with different sizes:hollow spheres Ni O had a unique hollow structure,rich oxygen vacancies,a larger electrochemical active area(ECSA)and a smaller charge transfer resistance.