Methanol-tolerant Pt/C Cathode Catalyst with Phosphorus-doped Carbon Layer for Direct Methanol Fuel Cell

Abstract

One of the challenging problems of direct methanol fuel cell is methanol crossover, permeating methanol from anode to cathode and leading to voltage drop. Pt-based catalyst is known as an excellent cathode catalyst despite the harsh pH condition, but it can also react with methanol. Thus, it is crucial to design a methanol-tolerant Pt-based catalyst to increase the ORR selectivity at the cathode. In this study, we synthesized Pt/C with P-doped carbon layer and applied as cathode catalyst for DMFC, demonstrating methanol tolerance and improved performance. Since the P-doped carbon layer could block the diffusion of methanol, Pt/C covered by P-doped carbon layer showed similar ORR activity but extremely low activity in the methanol oxidation reaction than pristine Pt/C, resulting high performance on DMFC.