Methanol oxidation on carbon-supported Pt-Ru and TiO₂ (Pt-Ru/TiO₂/C) electrocatalyst prepared using polygonal barrel-sputtering method

Methanol oxidation performance of a carbon-supported Pt-Ru alloy catalyst used at the direct methanol fuel cell (DMFC) anode is improved by adding TiO₂. However, the methanol oxidation performance of the electrocatalyst described above must be enhanced further to realize practical application in DMFCs. In this study, we used our original surface-modifying technique termed the "polygonal barrel-sputtering method" to prepare a carbon-supported Pt-Ru and TiO₂ (Pt-Ru/TiO₂/C) electrocatalyst offering higher methanol oxidation performance. The obtained results show that the methanol oxidation performance of the prepared Pt-Ru/TiO₂/C is superior to that using wet process as the TiO ₂ deposition method. Furthermore, for our sputtering method, the peak current of methanol oxidation on the Pt-Ru/TiO₂/C is enhanced by increasing the TiO₂ deposited amount up to 2.8 wt.%. These results suggest that a Pt-Ru/TiO₂ interface area is increased using the polygonal barrel-sputtering method, providing the high methanol oxidation performance of Pt-Ru/TiO₂/C.