Development and Characterization of Carbon Supported Palladium-based Anode Catalysts for the Alkaline Direct Ethanol Fuel Cell

Abstract

Direct ethanol fuel cells (DEFC) are limited by the slow kinetics of the ethanol oxidation reaction (EOR) at the anode. In this work, a ternary PdNiBi/C catalyst was synthesized via the modified instant method including a few modifications to investigate the influence on the performance for the alkaline EOR. The catalyst was ex‑situ characterized by means of thin film rotating disk electrode technique using a standard three electrode set-up. The results were compared with a commercial Pd/C catalyst. With the CV measurements, all characteristic reduction and oxidation peaks for Pd, Ni, and Bi as well as for the hydrogen ad/absorption were observed. The PdNiBi/C (636 cm2 mg‑1) catalyst presents a higher EASA than the commercial Pd/C (411 cm2 mg-1). The onset potential of the ternary catalyst (0.193 V) is lower, the maximum current density (138 mA cm-2) of the forward scan is higher and a better byproduct tolerance is examined compared to the commercial catalyst (0.255 V, 126 mA cm-2). The remaining current density of the PdNiBi/C is 13 % higher than that of the commercial Pd/C.