High activity of Pt–Rh supported on C–ITO for ethanol oxidation in alkaline medium

PtRh/C–ITO electrocatalysts were prepared in a single-step method using H2PtCl6·6H2O and RhCl3·xH2O as metal sources, sodium borohydride as the reducing agent and a physical mixture of 85% Vulcan Carbon XC72 and 15% In2O3·SnO2 (indium tin oxide—ITO) as support. PtRh/C–ITO were characterized by X-ray diffraction, transmission electron microscopy, X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS), cyclic voltammetry, chronoamperommetry, attenuated total reflectance, Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy and performance test on direct alkaline ethanol fuel cell. X-ray diffraction patterns for all PtRh/C–ITO indicated a shift in Pt (fcc) peaks, showing that Rh was incorporated into Pt lattice. Transmission electron microscopy for PtRh/C–ITO showed nanoparticles homogeneously distributed over the support with particles size between 3.0 and 4.0 nm. The XPS results for Pt70Rh30/C–ITO showed the presence of mixed oxidation states of Sn0 and SnO2 that could favor the oxidation of adsorbed intermediates by bifunctional mechanism. Pt90Rh10/C–ITO was more active in electrochemical studies, which could be associated with the C–C bond break. Experiments in direct alkaline ethanol fuel cells showed that the power density values obtained for Pt70Rh30/C–ITO and Pt90Rh10/C–ITO were higher than Pt/C, indicating the beneficial effect of Rh addition to Pt and the use of C–ITO support.