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Evaluation of Co–Au bimetallic nanoparticles as anode electrocatalyst for direct borohydride-hydrogen peroxide fuel cell

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Abstract

Carbon-supported Co–Au bimetallic nanoparticles with different Co/Au atomic ratios were prepared through two-step reduction in a reverse microemulsion system. The prepared catalysts were investigated as anode electrocatalysts for the electrooxidation of borohydride through X-ray diffractomer, transmission electron microscopy, cyclic voltammetry, chronoamperometry, chronopotentiometry, electrochemical impedance spectroscopy (EIS), and fuel cell test. Results showed that the Co4–Au1/C catalyst presents the highest catalytic activity and the lowest electrochemical impedance for BH4− electro-oxidation with the electron-transfer number of 4.1 among all the resultant catalysts. In addition, a laboratory direct borohydride-hydrogen peroxide fuel cell (DBHFC) with Co4–Au1/C anode obtains the maximum power density as high as 102.4 mW cm−2, which was 2.14 times that obtained when Au/C catalyst was used. All these results are indicating that the Co4–Au1/C is an efficient anode catalyst for direct borohydride-hydrogen peroxide fuel cell.

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Acknowledgements

This work was supported by the Key Research and Development Program of Shanxi Province, China (201803D121120).

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  1. College of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering, Taiyuan University of Technology, Taiyuan, 030024, People’s Republic of China

    Donghong Duan, Jiarong Feng, Xiu You, Xianxian Zhou, Yunfang Wang, Liang Chen & Shibin Liu

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  1. Donghong Duan
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Duan, D., Feng, J., You, X. et al. Evaluation of Co–Au bimetallic nanoparticles as anode electrocatalyst for direct borohydride-hydrogen peroxide fuel cell. Ionics 27, 3521–3532 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11581-021-04115-9

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