catalytic ability of novel pt/mcm-41 for fuel cells

Direct alcohol fuel cells are considered a promising future energy source for portable electronic devices. however, the major drawbacks of large-scale applications of platinum in fuel cells are high price, slow kinetics, low selectivity and co-poisoning of catalyst surface. as direct alcohol fuel cells are regarded as a promising source of future energy generation, globally there is a constant hunt for better catalysts. this particular research is an investigation of the role of mcm-41 in enhancing the catalytic activity of platinum in electro-oxidation of methanol and ethanol without any carbon additive. mcm-41 has not been used in catalyzing electro-oxidation of alcohols till now although zsm-5 has been investigated extensively. electrochemical studies show that pt/mcm-41/c is a better catalyst than pt/c in terms of mass activity along with long-term stability and reduced co-poisoning.