Chinese Journal of Applied Chemistry

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Synthesis and Electrocatalysis Activity of Silver-Tin Bimetallic Catalysts for Oxygen Reduction Reaction

TANG Meixiang, YI Qingfeng*   

  1. (School of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering,Hunan University of Science and Technology,Xiangtan 411201,China)
  • Received:2012-12-05 Revised:2013-02-27 Published:2013-10-10 Online:2013-10-10

Abstract: Carbon-loaded Ag or Ag-Sn bimetallic nanoparticles were prepared by the hydrothermal process, in which Ag+ or Ag++Sn2+ dissolved in ethanol were reduced to Ag or binary Ag-Sn nanoparticles by ethanol as the reduction agent. The morphological features of the catalysts show a typical nanoporous structure. Cyclic voltammetry and steady state polarization measurements were used to investigate the electroactivity of the samples for oxygen reduction reaction(ORR). The results show that both Ag/C and Ag-Sn/C exhibits a high electrocatalysis activity, with the onset potential of ca. 0.05 V(vs.Ag/AgCl) and a high current density for the ORR. Levich analysis shows that the binary Ag-Sn/C possesses a much greater electron number for ORR than Ag/C. Among the prepared samples, the Ag97Sn3/C catalyst displays the highest current density for oxygen reduction reaction. In addition, the Ag/C and Ag-Sn/C catalysts exhibit strong tolerance towards methanol.

Key words: Binary silver-tin bimetallic, Silver electrode, Oxygen reduction, Hydrothermal method

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