Pd-based Catalysts for Ethanol Oxidation in Alkaline Electrolyte

A. M. Sheikh^1, , E. L. Silva², L. Moares², L. M. Antonini², Mohammed Y. Abellah¹ and C. F. Malfatti²

¹Department of Mechanical Engineering, South Valley University, Qena 83521, Egypt

²DEMET, Federal University of Rio Grande do Sul, Porto Alegre 91501-970, RS, Brazil

Cite this paper:
A. M. Sheikh, E. L. Silva, L. Moares, L. M. Antonini, Mohammed Y. Abellah and C. F. Malfatti. Pd-based Catalysts for Ethanol Oxidation in Alkaline Electrolyte. American Journal of Mining and Metallurgy. 2014; 2(4):64-69. doi: 10.12691/ajmm-2-4-1

Abstract

Direct ethanol fuel cells (DEFCs) have received tremendous attention from academics recently since they can oxidize the liquid ethanol to produce electrical energy efficiently. In this work, five catalysts, which are single, binary, and ternary ones of Pd, Sn, and Ni respectively, are synthesized by the impregnation-reduction method to speed up the reaction kinetics of ethanol oxidation (EOR) in alkaline medium. The crystal structure is investigated by the X-ray diffraction (XRD) technique. The electrochemical performance is evaluated by the cyclic voltammetry (CV) and chronomperometry (CA) analyses. The best catalytic performance has been achieved by the bi-catalyst Pd₄₀Ni₆₀/C and the tri-catalyst Pd₄₀Ni₅₀Sn₁₀/C. The reason, for that high performance, could be exemplified that Ni could generate OH^- species at lower potentials.

Keywords:
ethanol oxidation Pd catalyst alkaline electrolyte

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