Chemical Research in Chinese Universities ›› 2010, Vol. 26 ›› Issue (3): 465-471.

• Articles • Previous Articles     Next Articles

Electronic Effect of Carbon Support on Pt Catalyst Supported on Graphite Intercalation Compound

WEI Ang, WANG Qing-jing, ZHAO Xiao-hui and ZHANG Shu-yong*   

  1. Key Lab of Colloid and Interface Chemistry, Ministry of Education, School of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering, Shandong University, Jinan 250100, P. R. China
  • Received:2009-05-18 Revised:2009-10-27 Online:2010-05-25 Published:2010-07-27
  • Contact: ZHANG Shu-yong. E-mail: syzhang@sdu.edu.cn
  • Supported by:

    Supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China(No.20673068).

Abstract:

Graphite intercalation compounds(GIC) were tested as an experimental model for studying the electronic effect of carbon support on the catalytic activity and poisoning tolerance of Pt catalyst for direct methanol fuel cells. The GIC samples with different intercalation degrees were prepared by electrolyzing graphite flake in H2SO4 for varying the periods of time. The GIC-supported Pt catalyst was deposited electrochemically. The catalytic activity and poisoning tolerance of the GIC-supported Pt catalysts were evaluated. It was found that GIC with sulfate anion as intercalate was able to catalyze methanol electrooxidation, which could be related to the positive charges generated on the graphite layer upon intercalation. As intercalation degree increased, the catalytic activity of the GIC-supported Pt catalyst decreased while the poisoning tolerance improved. This suggests that electron donation from support to catalyst had great effect on both catalytic activity and poisoning tolerance of Pt catalyst. And intercalation can be adopted as another important way to make modification on carboneous catalyst support.

Key words: Catalyst support; Electronic effect; Graphite intercalation compound; Catalytic activity; Poisoning tole- rance