Composite anode electrode based on iridium oxide promoter for direct methanol fuel cells

Nanostructured Iridium Oxide: State of the Art

Iridium Oxide (IrO2) is a metal oxide with a rutile crystalline structure, analogous to the TiO2 rutile polymorph. Unlike other oxides of transition metals, IrO2 shows a metallic type conductivity and displays a low surface work function. IrO2 is also characterized by a high chemical stability. These highly desirable properties make IrO2 a rightful candidate for specific applications. Furthermore, IrO2 can be synthesized in the form of a wide variety of nanostructures ranging from nanopowder, nanosheets, nanotubes, nanorods, nanowires, and nanoporous thin films. IrO2 nanostructuration, which allows its attractive intrinsic properties to be enhanced, can therefore be exploited according to the pursued application. Indeed, IrO2 nanostructures have shown utility in fields that span from electrocatalysis, electrochromic devices, sensors, fuel cell and supercapacitors. After a brief description of the IrO2 structure and properties, the present review will describe the main employed synthetic methodologies that are followed to prepare selectively the various types of nanostructures, highlighting in each case the advantages brought by the nanostructuration illustrating their performances and applications.

Data Mining of Heterogeneous Electrical Conduction in the Electrode Components of Fuel Cells

The electrodes of a polymer electrolyte membrane fuel cell (PEMFC) primarily contain a Pt/C catalyst and Nafion binder. Since these components play crucial roles in the redox reaction and proton transport, respectively, their distributions can directly affect the electrochemical reactivity and thus the device performance. Although analyzing the component distribution is important to understand its electrochemical reactivity and improve the device performance, determining it for the PEMFC electrode remains a challenging task. Herein, we propose a strategy for visualizing the spatial distribution of the electrode components and their heterogeneous electrical properties using multidimensional current-voltage (I-V) spectroscopy combined with data mining. The electrical properties of the electrode components, i.e., the Pt/C catalyst and Nafion binder, were explored by I-V spectroscopy, and their electrical heterogeneity was spatially classified based on the shapes of the measured I-V curves by cluster analysis. The results show that the components and their interfacial structure can be spatially visualized from the surface electrical heterogeneity. The proposed method is expected to be applicable for investigating in detail not only the spatial properties of PEMFC electrodes but also the properties of various material systems.

Active Methanol Oxidation Reaction by Enhanced CO Tolerance on Bimetallic Pt/Ir Electrocatalysts Using Electronic and Bifunctional Effects

Platinum-based metal alloys have been generally developed to provide high carbon monoxide resistance in the anodes of direct methanol fuel cells. We report the potential of bimetallic platinum/iridium electrocatalysts in preserving the outstanding carbon monoxide tolerance obtained from both experimental and theoretical studies, which represents the enhanced electrochemical performance of methanol oxidation and the in-depth and stepwise investigations for reaction mechanisms, respectively. In this study, the findings highlight the dual-enhancement characteristics of low carbon monoxide adsorption energy (electronic effect) and carbon monoxide oxidative removal (bifunctional effect) compared with various electrocatalysts such as platinum, iridium, and platinum/ruthenium alloys. In addition, the reaction affinity of platinum/iridium alloys for methanol dehydrogenation is also studied in accordance with atomistic properties, such as adsorption energy and electronic band gap, to understand the electrochemical performance compared to Pt. The results obtained indicate that the platinum/iridium alloy surface played diverse roles in terms of its multifunctional behaviors for carbon monoxide tolerance, including the favorable mechanism of methanol dehydrogenation. It turns out that throughout the theoretical in-depth studies, platinum/iridium alloys are promising candidates in terms of the extension for electrocatalytic material designs that differ from Ru in direct methanol fuel cells.

Carbon-Supported Pd and PdFe Alloy Catalysts for Direct Methanol Fuel Cell Cathodes

Direct methanol fuel cells (DMFCs) are electrochemical devices that efficiently produce electricity and are characterized by a large flexibility for portable applications and high energy density. Methanol crossover is one of the main obstacles for DMFC commercialization, forcing the search for highly electro-active and methanol tolerant cathodes. In the present work, carbon-supported Pd and PdFe catalysts were synthesized using a sodium borohydride reduction method and physico-chemically characterized using transmission electron microscopy (TEM) and X-ray techniques such as photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS), diffraction (XRD) and energy dispersive spectroscopy (EDX). The catalysts were investigated as DMFC cathodes operating at different methanol concentrations (up to 10 M) and temperatures (60 °C and 90 °C). The cell based on PdFe/C cathode presented the best performance, achieving a maximum power density of 37.5 mW·cm^-2 at 90 °C with 10 M methanol, higher than supported Pd and Pt commercial catalysts, demonstrating that Fe addition yields structural changes to Pd crystal lattice that reduce the crossover effects in DMFC operation.

Niobium-doped titanium dioxide on a functionalized carbon supported palladium catalyst for enhanced ethanol electro-oxidation

Pd nanoparticles anchored on Nb-doped TiO₂ with functionalized carbon support (denoted as Pd/Nb–TiO₂–C) is synthesized through a controllable hydrolysis and impregnation method.

Structure Evolution and Hydrogenation Performance of IrFe Bimetallic Nanomaterials

By a reverse microemulsion method, a series of IrFe bimetallic nanomaterials of variable morphologies and compositions is synthesized and characterized by (57)Fe Mössbauer spectroscopy, XRD, XPS, and TEM. The structure evolution, such as IrFe alloy nanoparticles to Ir nanoparticles on Fe2O3 flakes, can be simply tuned by changing the molar ratio of Ir to Fe precursors. In terms of Fe, the relative content of IrFe alloy decreased with the increase of Fe species doped, while that of Fe2O3 flakes increased until reached 100%. The as-prepared IrFe bimetallic nanomaterials were served as catalysts for the selective hydrogenation of 3-nitrostyrene to 3-aminostyrene, and it is found that the catalytic performance was related to the morphology and composition of these nanomaterials. Ir1Fe4 was subsequently identified to be a highly active and exceedingly selective catalyst with good stability and recyclability for the hydrogenation of 3-nitrostyrene, underscoring a remarkable "synergistic effect" of the two metals appearing as the form of Ir nanoparticles loaded on Fe2O3 flakes. For Ir nanoparticles, they act as an active species for the hydrogenation; for Fe2O3 flakes, they favor the preferential adsorption of nitro groups, which account for the better chemoselectivity to objective product.