Sol-gel method to prepare active Pt-RuO2 coatings on carbon powder for methanol oxidation

Platinum/ruthenium coatings show promising electrocatalytic properties as anode materials for the direct methanol fuel cell. Various studies in this field indicate that the electrocatalytic properties are highly sensitive to the utilized coating method. Aiming to make anodes with high surface area and activity, the sol-gel method is utilized in this work for the first time to form Pt-RuO2 deposits on a carbon black substrate. Pt-RuO2/C materials with various loadings of the active phase were obtained and their activity toward methanol electrooxidation was investigated by cyclic voltammetry. The results of this investigation show higher activity of the Pt-RuO2/C anodes prepared by the sol-gel method as compared to commercial state-of-art catalysts with similar Pt-Ru loading. The simplicity of the sol-gel deposition method with respect to other preparation procedures and the good electrocatalytic properties of the obtained Pt-RuO2/C anodes encourage further research in this field. (C) 2004 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.