Use of commercial TiO2 as direct ethanol fuel cell electrocatalyst support

Abstract

Direct ethanol fuel cells (DEFCs) are efficient converters of chemical energy into electrical energy. DEFCs operate at low temperatures, and an anode, a cathode and an electrolyte are the main constituents. In alkaline media, electrocatalysts, responsible for promoting anodic and cathodic reactions, are generally composed of palladium supported on carbon black. Other materials have been studied in order to make the ethanol oxidation reaction (EOR) more efficient. In this work, the effect of commercial TiO2 as alternative support to Pd-based catalysts for the EOR was evaluated. The synthesized materials were characterized by X-ray diffraction, linear voltammetry and chronoamperometry, aiming to determine the effect of different supports on the performance of the EOR.