Journal
ENERGY & ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCE
Volume 5, Issue 8, Pages 8335-8342Publisher
ROYAL SOC CHEMISTRY
DOI: 10.1039/c2ee21455e
Keywords
-
Funding
- Lundbeck Foundation
- US Department of Energy, Basic Energy Sciences, Division of Chemical Sciences
- Department of Energy's Office of Biological and Environmental Research located at PNNL
- US Department of Energy, Office of Science [DE-AC02-06CH11357, DE-AC05-00OR22725, DE-AC02-05CH11231]
- US Department of Energy, Basic Energy Sciences via Stanford Accelerator Laboratory
- Center of Excellence (Exzellenzcluster) in Catalysis UNICAT
- German National Science Foundation (DFG)
- NSF [0955922]
- Direct For Mathematical & Physical Scien
- Division Of Chemistry [0955922] Funding Source: National Science Foundation
Ask authors/readers for more resources
Using the binding energy of OH* and CO* on close-packed surfaces as reactivity descriptors, we screen bulk and surface alloy catalysts for methanol electro-oxidation activity. Using these two descriptors, we illustrate that a good methanol electro-oxidation catalyst must have three key properties: (1) the ability to activate methanol, (2) the ability to activate water, and (3) the ability to react off surface intermediates (such as CO* and OH*). Based on this analysis, an alloy catalyst made up of Cu and Pt should have a synergistic effect facilitating the activity towards methanol electro-oxidation. Using these two reactivity descriptors, a surface PtCu3 alloy is proposed to have the best catalytic properties of the Pt-Cu model catalysts tested, similar to those of a Pt-Ru bulk alloy. To validate the model, experiments on a Pt(111) surface modified with different amounts of Cu adatoms are performed. Adding Cu to a Pt(111) surface increases the methanol oxidation current by more than a factor of three, supporting our theoretical predictions for improved electrocatalysts.
Authors
I am an author on this paper
Click your name to claim this paper and add it to your profile.
Reviews
Recommended
No Data Available