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An effective electrocatalyst for ethanol oxidation: Pt-modified IrCu alloy nanoparticle

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Abstract

There is a growing interest in ethanol oxidation electrochemistry as it plays an important role in renewable energy technologies. The goal of this work was to develop active multifunctional catalyst materials for ethanol oxidation. Here, a carbon-supported Pt-modified IrCu alloy electrocatalyst (Pt–IrCu/C) was prepared by a two-step method. X-ray diffraction and transmission electron microscope showed that the Pt–IrCu/C has a two-phase structure: Pt nanoparticle-modified IrCu alloy. The Pt–IrCu/C catalyst was found to have not only a large electrochemically active specific area (S EAS) but also good CO oxidation ability for oxidation of ethanol compared to the commercial Pt/C electrocatalyst using cyclic voltammetry. Furthermore, the Pt current density of Pt–IrCu/C was more than 1.6 times as high as that of Pt/C for ethanol oxidation. The Pt–IrCu/C catalyst also exhibited more efficient usage of Pt and enhanced the stability of ethanol electro-oxidation compared with a Pt/C catalyst.

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Acknowledgements

We would like to thank the State Natural Science Foundation of China (Project No. 20774074), the Key Project of Ministry of Education Foundation of China (Project No. 209129), and the Scientific and Technical Innovation Project of Northwest Normal University (nwnu-kjcxgc-03-63) for financially supporting this work.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Key Laboratory of Eco-Environment-Related Polymer Materials—Ministry of Education of China, College of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering, Northwest Normal University, Lanzhou, 730070, China

    Rongfang Wang, Bangxing Wei, Hui Wang, Xiangtai Zhang & Ziqiang Lei

  2. South African Institute for Advanced Materials Chemistry, University of the Western Cape, Cape Town, 7535, South Africa

    Shan Ji & Julian Key

Authors
  1. Rongfang Wang
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  2. Bangxing Wei
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  3. Hui Wang
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  4. Shan Ji
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  5. Julian Key
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  6. Xiangtai Zhang
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  7. Ziqiang Lei
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Correspondence to Rongfang Wang or Ziqiang Lei.

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Wang, R., Wei, B., Wang, H. et al. An effective electrocatalyst for ethanol oxidation: Pt-modified IrCu alloy nanoparticle. Ionics 17, 595–601 (2011). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11581-011-0614-7

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11581-011-0614-7

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