An efficient composite hybrid catalyst fashioned from Pt nanoparticles and Sb-doped SnO2 nanowires for alcohol electro-oxidation

We report the development of a hybrid catalyst composed of Sb-doped SnO2 nanowires (ATO NWs) with Pt/C that shows greatly increased catalytic activity of approximately 80% and 50% higher than Pt/C alone for ethanol and methanol electro-oxidation, respectively. The enhanced catalytic performances of the hybrid catalyst system is attributed to improved charge transport properties from 1-D semiconducting ATO NWs on the oxidation electrode. Furthermore, our hybrid catalyst has much higher stability for alcohol oxidation due to the ATO NWs.