(73d) Ni-Cu Based Nano Composite Alloys for Methanol Electro-Oxidation Reaction

PEMFC production coast is one of the important issues for its commercialization. Platinum (electro catalyst) and Nafion (membrane), both are very expensive. Efforts have been made in recent years to reduce catalyst costs and improve the efficiency of non-platinum based catalysts for both cathode and anode application. In the case of direct methanol fuel cell (DMFC), most efficient anode catalyst for the electrochemical oxidation reaction is the platinum nano-particles (2 - 4 nm) supported on a high surface area carbon carbon nanotubes (CNTs). However, it has been found that carbon monoxide (CO) formed during the reaction as a by-product, poisons the surface of the anode which in turn causes a dramatic decrease in the anode performance. A possible solution for that will be to use a CO tolerant electro catalyst and it is tried by alloying Pt with other transition metals or using non-platinum based catalysts. It is reported that the best CO-tolerant electro catalysts is Pt-Ru alloy. Again, this alloy is also extremely expensive, so there is a need for an alternative low coat electro catalyst with desired performance. Many non-platinum based cheaper catalysts have been investigated. However, due to the inferior performance of these catalysts, there is a big opening to develop low-cost non-platinum multi composition electro catalysts with desired properties for DMFC/PEMFC. Here, we will report synthesis; characterization and methanol electro-oxidation characteristics of several novel Ni-Cu based multi-composition alloy catalysts on MWCNT support.