Enhancing ethanol electrooxidation stability catalyzed by Pt with SnO2 modified graphene as support

Developing catalysts for the stable electrooxidation of ethanol have been a goal pursued by scientists. The present work reports a facile synthesis of catalysts with a double junction structure of Pt and SnO 2 on graphene (Pt/SnO 2 GN) through sol–gel combined with glycol hydrothermal reduction method. The physicochemical analyses show that the reduced Pt uniformly dispersed on GN is located adjacent to SnO 2 and has electronic interaction with the composite carrier. The electrochemical results exhibit that Pt/SnO 2 GN has better catalytic performance for ethanol electrooxidation than PtSnO 2 /GN and PtSn/GN. The ethanol oxidation peak current density on Pt/SnO 2 GN, after 1500 cycles of voltammetric testing, can still maintain 99.2% of the highest. The excellent catalytic stability of Pt/SnO 2 GN is ascribed to the double junction structure and the appropriate interaction between Pt and SnO 2 on GN, which enlarge the ECSA of Pt, improve the structural integrity, accelerate the charge transfer kinetics and increase the CO tolerance.