Electro-oxidation of Methanol and Ethanol Catalyzed by Pt/ZSM-5/C

Direct alcohol fuel cells are a promising source of future energy generation for small and portable devices. Platinum is considered the best catalyst for electro-oxidation of alcohols in fuel cells but the major hurdles with platinum catalysts are high cost of platinum as well as low selectivity, slow reaction kinetics and carbonaceous poisoning associated with platinum. This particular research reports electro-oxidation of methanol and ethanol over platinum electrodeposited on ZSM-5 without any carbon additive. From the cyclic voltammetry and chronoamperometry, linear sweep voltammetry, tafel plot and multiple scan analyses, it is found that Pt/ZSM-5/C electrodes can catalyze electro-oxidation of methanol and ethanol with higher efficiency. ZSM-5 supports the formation of smaller sized platinum nanoparticles in a dispersed manner on the zeolite support and thus increases the active surface area of the metal for catalytic activity. It favors adsorption of alcohol molecules on the modified electrode surface and thus increases the diffusion process. It also stabilizes the modified electrodes.