Study of a Platinum Electrocatalyst with Improved Properties, Modified with Antimony and Tin Dioxide, for Methanol Oxidation and Oxygen Reduction Reactions

In this work, a multicomponent platinum electrocatalyst supported on carbon (PtX/(SbY + SnO2Z)/C) was synthesized for the oxygen reduction reaction (ORR) and methanol oxidation reaction (MOR) for a proton exchange membrane fuel cell (PEMFC). Specific surface area analysis and scanning electron microscopy studies confirmed the incorporation of antimony and tin dioxide nanoparticles into the electrocatalyst structure. Electrochemical studies made it possible to differentiate the contribution of the modifiers to the characteristics of the modified electrocatalyst. Due to the incorporation of tin dioxide, the specific activity values in the oxygen reduction and methanol oxidation reactions exceed those of the unmodified samples by 40 and 36%, respectively. The introduction of antimony contributed to the retention of high electrochemical characteristics (20% less loss of active surface area) upon exposure to catalytic poisons by increasing electrical conductivity. The multicomponent electrocatalyst is also characterized by a 2.8-fold increase in stability and an electrochemically active surface area comparable to that of a commercial sample.