Alcohol Electrooxidation at Pt-Ru Sputter-deposited Electrode

Abstract

The use of various alcohols including methanol has been considered as the fuel of direct alcohol fuel cells (DAFCs). Thus far, the Pt alloys have mainly been studied as anode electrocatalysts for DAFCs. Pt itself is poisoned by chemical species produced during the alcohol oxidation. There exist many reports that the addition of Ru is effective for the alcohol oxidation. In this work, we prepared Pt-Ru co-sputtered electrode by changing Ru content, sputtering time and Ar pressure for the sputtering. By using the prepared electrocatalysts, relationships between sputtering conditions and electrocatalytic activity were measured for some alcohols.