investigation of the synergism effect and electrocatalytic activities of pt and ru nanoparticles supported on the carbon aerogel-carbon nanotube (ca-cnt) for methanol oxidation reaction (mor)

Given that the catalyst and catalyst support properties have a key role to play in the electrochemical activity of fuel cells, in this research, the synergism effect of pt and ru nanoparticles reduced on catalyst support [synthesized carbon aerogel-carbon nanotube (ca-cnt)] was investigated. the catalyst support was synthesized by sol-gel method and the catalyst nanoparticles were reduced on catalyst support using impregnation and hydrothermal method. different molar ratios of pt:ru (i.e., 0:1, 1:0, 3:1, 2:1, 1:1, 1:2, and 1:3) were applied as electrocatalysts for methanol oxidation reaction (mor). the electrochemical performance of these catalysts was compared with that of commercial pt/c (20 % wt) for mor. the physical properties of the synthesized catalyst support (cnt-ca) were studied using fesem and bet techniques. moreover, xrd and icp analyses were employed for investigating each of the synthesized catalyst (pt/cnt-ca and ru/cnt-ca). the cyclic voltammetry and chronoamperometry methods were used to conduct electrochemical analysis. research results indicated that synthesis methods were reliable. moreover, cnt-ca had a proper performance as the catalyst support and the pt:ru with a 3:1 molar ratio was the best catalyst among all the synthesized catalysts for mor.