NiSn Bimetallic Nanoparticles as Stable Electrocatalysts for Methanol Oxidation Reaction

Ting Zhang^a, PengYi Tang^a, JunShan Li^b, ZhiShan Luo^b, Yong Zuo^b, JunFeng Liu^b, Jordi Llorca^c, Andreu Cabot^b^,^d, Jordi Arbiol^a^,^d

^aCatalan Institute of Nanoscience and Nanotechnology (ICN2), CSIC and BIST, Campus UAB, Bellaterra, Barcelona, Spain

^bCatalonia Institute for Energy Research (IREC), Jardins de les Dones de Negre 1, Sant Adria del Besos, Spain

^cInstitute of Energy Technologies, Department of Chemical Engineering and Barcelona Research Centre in Multiscale Science and Engineering, Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya, EEBE, 08019 Barcelona, Spain

^dInstitució Catalana de Recerca i Estudis Avançats (ICREA), Spain, Passeig Lluis Companys 23, Barcelona, Spain

Materials for Sustainable Development Conference (MATSUS)
Proceedings of nanoGe Fall Meeting 2018 (NFM18)

S2 Light Driven Water Splitting

Torremolinos, Spain, 2018 October 22nd - 26th

Organizers: Wolfram Jaegermann and Bernhard Kaiser

Poster, Ting Zhang, 048
Publication date: 6th July 2018

Methanol oxidation reaction (MOR), as an important component in direct methanol fuel cells (DMFCs), received increasing attention in renewable energy technologies. However, due to the usage of precious metal electrocatalysts, this reaction was hindered by its high manufacturing cost.¹ Benefiting from their distinctive performance in carbon coupling reactions, Ni-based materials were widely used in MOR. Therefore, searching for a Ni-based electrocatalyst that can not only improve stabilities, but also increase the electrocatalytic performance is urgently needed because of unsatisfactory durability of Ni-based in alkaline electrolytes.² In this work, through co-reduction of the two metals in the presence of appropriate surfactants, the bimetallic NiSn nanoparticles (NPs) with tuneable ratio between Ni and Sn have been synthesized.³ According to some images obtained from high resolution transmission electron microscopy (HRTEM), 3-5 nm spherical NiSn NPs with good crystallinity are present. Meanwhile, EELS chemical composition maps display a homogeneous coexistence of Ni and Sn in these NPs. However, when the ratio of Ni and Sn is 2:1, the EELS mapping images clearly show the formation of a core-shell structure with a Ni-rich core. In addition, the performance of these NPs supported on carbon black for MOR was tested. We found that NiSn (2:1) NPs exhibited the highest electrocatalytic activity in alkaline solution, with mass current density of 820 mA/mg at 0.70 V (vs. Hg/HgO) and a highly improved stability over periods of 10,000 s at 0.70 V. Finally, we observed that there is no obvious structural damage of such NPs after the stability test, which was further proved by TEM, demonstrating a high stability of the material under working conditions.

Reference

(1) Luo, L.-M.; Zhang, R.-H.; Chen, D.; Hu, Q.-Y.; Zhou, X.-W. ACS Appl. Energy Mater. 2018.

(2) De, S.; Zhang, J.; Luque, R.; Yan, N. Energy Environ. Sci. 2016, 9 (11), 3314-3347.

(3) Li, J.; Luo, Z.; Zuo, Y.; Liu, J.; Zhang, T.; Tang, P.; Arbiol, J.; Llorca, J.; Cabot, A. Appl. Catal.B, 2018, 234, 10-18.

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