Developing a high-effective Pt-based phosphating catalyst for direct ethylene glycol fuel cells

The development of high efficiency catalysts is of pivotal importance. By introducing heteroatom phosphorus into the core-shell structure, it can optimize the electronic structure, improve the catalyst performance for direct ethylene glycol fuel cells (DEGFCs). In this study, a phosphating etched-PtCox-alloy pseudo-core-shell electrocatalyst (P-(PtCox@Pt)/C, x = 2, 4, 6, 8) is fabricated by a combined phosphating and etching method. Among as-prepared catalysts, the optimal P-(PtCo4@Pt)/C exhibits high catalytic activity for ethylene glycol electrooxidation. Furthermore, after 3000 s chronoamperometry test, its residual current density is also higher than others, indicating its good stability. Importantly, the P-(PtCo4@Pt)/C assembled-DEGFCs has an open circuit potential of 0.675 V, and peak power density of 14.48 mW cm−2. This P-(PtCo4@Pt)/C would be a good choice to developing DEGFCs technology.