A potential anode material for the direct alcohol fuel cell

Abstract One of the key points to develop a cost-effective direct alcohol fuel cell (DAFC) is to investigate cheaper electrocatalysts for the oxidation of alcohol at the anode, allowing an increase in the current density and a decrease in the anodic overvoltage. In this respect, polycrystalline deposits of platinum and platinum–ruthenium on a CuNi (70:30) alloy support are investigated here. Electro-oxidation of ethanol in 0.5 M NaOH is studied over these electrodes. Cyclic voltammetry, steady state polarization and electrochemical impedance spectroscopy are used to investigate the kinetics and mechanism of ethanol electro-oxidation. Efforts are also made to correlate the catalytic activity of such electrodes with their surface morphology.