Platinum-Tin Oxide Core-Shell Catalysts for Efficient Electro-Oxidation of Ethanol

摘要

Platinum-tin (Pt/Sn) binary nanoparticles are active electrocatalysts for the ethanol oxidation reaction (EOR), but inactive for splitting the C-C bond of ethanol to CO_2. Here we studied detailed structure properties of Pt/Sn catalysts for the EOR, especially CO_2 generation in situ using a CO_2 microelectrode. We found that composition and crystalline structure of the tin element played important roles in the CO_2 generation: non-alloyed Pt_(46)-(SnO_2)_(54) core-shell particles demonstrated a strong capability for C-C bond breaking of ethanol than pure Pt and intermetallic Pt/Sn, showing 4.1 times higher CO_2 peak partial pressure generated from EOR than commercial Pt/C.