Search

This work describes the preparation and characterization of Pt-Ru alloys dispersed on high surface area carbon, which were evaluated for CO oxidation on thin porous coating rotating disk electrodes and for hydrogen oxidation on polymer electrolyte fuel cells fed with hydrogen containing 100 ppm CO. A thermal treatment (H2, 300 ºC) applied to the catalysts improves the tolerance to small quantities of CO and, in some cases, reduces the potential necessary to promote the CO oxidation during a linear potential scan. Under operational conditions in a fuel cell in the presence of CO it was observed that the best results were obtained when the Pt-Ru/C alloy was prepared by simultaneous reduction of the ions Pt (IV) and Ru (III), as opposed to a sequential reduction.

The electrochemical oxidation of formaldehyde is studied on dimensionally stable anodes prepared by thermal decomposition of precursors (the corresponding chlorides). The working electrodes used were: Ti/Ir0.3Ti0.7O2, Ti/Ru0.3Ti0.7O2 and Ti/Ir0.2Ru0.2Ti0.6O2. The electrolyses were performed galvanostatically in a filter press cell with 0.5 mol L-1 H2SO4 solutions with initial formaldehyde concentration equal to 100 mmol L-1. The concentration of formaldehyde decreases fast with the electrolysis time, with the ternary anode (Ir + Ru + Ti) presenting the best performance for this step. The anode containing only Ir, despite presenting the higher superficial charge, is the one with the lowest electrocatalytic activity. For the formic acid oxidation step, the presence of iridium in the anode composition does not promote the process, the anode containing only ruthenium being the most effective for this step.

This work considers mainly the problem of environmental pollution due to the production of energy by burning fossil fuels, particularly in urban vehicles. Electrochemical energy conversion is proposed as a partial solution to this problem, through the use of hydrogen in fuel cells. In both the production of hydrogen by electrolysis and in the electrochemical processes in fuel cells, the key factor is electrocatalysis. The concept of electrocatalysis, the production of catalysts and supported catalysts and their use in practical systems for the conversion of energy is discussed.

The electrocatalytic oxidation of methanol on Pt:Mo dispersed on carbon prepared using an alternative method recently developed in this laboratory was investigated. The EDX analysis confirmed that the simultaneous reduction of the precursor salts of Pt and Mo leads to the presence of these materials at the nominal composition initially calculated. The addition of Mo to Pt causes an increase of the oxidation currents, but does not improve the catalytic effect for methanol oxidation. Tafel plots for various methanol concentrations showed the presence of two slopes. On line differential electrochemical mass spectrometry (DEMS) was used to investigate the distribution of products and intermediates in methanol oxidation.

Research was conducted to examine hydrogen evolution reaction on the low index planes of single-crystal Au electrodes using HclO4 solutions. The objective is to determine the extent of the sensitivity of the reaction rate to the surface crystallographic structure by the hanging meniscus rotating disk method. Results reveal the large dependence of the kinetics of the hydrogen evolution reaction on gold electrodes in HClO4 solutions with the crystallographic orientation of the surface.