Coverage-dependent electro-catalytic activity of Pt sub-monolayer/Au bi-metallic catalyst toward methanol oxidation

The coverage-dependent catalytic properties of a Pt nanofilm formed on a Au substrate were investigated for the electro-oxidation of methanol. The coverage of Pt nanofilm was precisely fabricated by the formation of coverage-controlled under potential deposition of Cu adlayer and followed by the surface limited redox replacement reaction with different Pt complex ions. The STM images exhibit the formation of Pt nano-film on Au substrate with different coverage. It was clearly shown that the activity of Pt nanofilm deposited on Au substrate toward the methanol electro-oxidation was highly sensitive to its surface coverage. Pt-Au bimetallic catalyst was found to become active at the Pt surface coverage near 0.2 and reached its maximum around 0.6. The electro-catalytic activity as well as CO tolerance on Pt-Au bimetallic system was found higher than those on a Pt electrode. Copyright (C) 2013, Hydrogen Energy Publications, LLC. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.