B. Muthukumaran, M. Priya

ABSTRACT

The mesoporous supported ternary Pt–Sn–Pd catalysts synthesized by sodium borohydride reduction method. X-ray diffraction spectroscopy (XRD) demonstrated the representative characterization of a crystalline Pt face centered cubic (fcc) structure, evaluated with that of Pt/MP, the lattice parameter of Pt–Sn–Pd/MP catalysts enlarges, its diffraction peaks are shifted little towards a lower 2? values. It designates to Sn and Pd be well incorporated into Pt alloy surface. Transmission electron microscopy (TEM) represents that the Pt–Sn–Pd nanoparticles among a crystallite size near to 3 nm are extremely dispersed on the surface of MP. The electro-catalytic performance of the combined catalysts for electro-oxidation of ethanol was examined with cyclic voltammogram (CV), and chronoamperometry (CA). The consequences designate that alter of Pd and support using MP could promote extensively the catalytic performance for ethanol electro-oxidation. The Pt–Sn–Pd/MC catalysts exhibit a higher intrinsic activity for ethanol electro-oxidation than Pt–Sn/MC, Pt–Sn–Pd/MC. The Pt–Sn–Pd/MC catalyst with a best among all different compositions for electro-oxidation, which may be attributed to the high surface area, good electrical conductivity and uniformly distribution of particles in the mesoporous carbon support materials. The single menbraneless ethanol fuel cell (MLEFC) experiment results demonstrate that Pt–Sn–Pd/MC given the high power density and current density among they prepared catalysts. Keywords : Membraneless fuel cells, Platinum, Palladium, Tin, Sodium Perborate.