Performance of carbon fiber supported Pt-SnO₂ anode catalyst for direct ethanol fuel cell

Nano Pt-SnO₂ anode catalyst (with a Pt/Sn atomic ratio of 3) supported on carbon fiber was synthesized via electrospinning technology. The catalyst was characterized by X-ray diffraction (XRD), Fourier transform infrared (FT-IR) and scanning electron microscopy (SEM); its activity for ethanol oxidation as an anode in direct ethanol fuel cell was evaluated through cyclic voltammogram (CV). The results showed that nano Pt-SnO₂ catalyst is uniformly scattered around the skeleton of vesicular carbon fiber. The carbon fiber exhibits higher density, better conductive performance with the increase of sintering temperature. The electrocatalytic test results indicated that at a sintering temperature of 800 ℃, the catalyst exhibits the best peak current density (0.11 A/cm²) and the strongest tolerance to CO. Single cell power performance test suggests that highest power generation efficiency can be achieved with an injection velocity of 1.0 mL/min with proper ethanol concentration.