Pt-Bi decorated nanoporous gold for high performance direct glucose fuel cell

Abstract

Abstract Binary PtBi decorated nanoporous gold (NPG-PtBi) electrocatalyst is specially designed and prepared for the anode in direct glucose fuel cells (DGFCs). By using electroless and electrochemical plating methods, a dense Pt layer and scattered Bi particles are sequentially coated on NPG. A simple DGFC with NPG-PtBi as anode and commercial Pt/C as cathode is constructed and operated to study the effect of operating temperatures and concentrations of glucose and NaOH. With an anode noble metal loading of only 0.45 mg cm −2 (Au 0.3 mg and Pt 0.15 mg), an open circuit voltage (OCV) of 0.9 V is obtained with a maximum power density of 8 mW cm −2 . Furthermore, the maximum gravimetric power density of NPG-PtBi is 18 mW mg −1 , about 4.5 times higher than that of commercial Pt/C.

Key findings

• ▸NPG-PtBi anode achieves an open circuit voltage (OCV) of 0.9 V and maximum power density of 8 mW cm⁻².
• ▸Maximum gravimetric power density of NPG-PtBi is 18 mW mg⁻¹, 4.5 times higher than commercial Pt/C.
• ▸Operating temperatures and concentrations of glucose and NaOH have a significant effect on the performance of the DGFC.

Keywords

Identifiers

DOI

10.1038/srep39162

Journal

Scientific Reports

Year

2016