An effective and low cost Pd-Ce bimetallic decorated carbon nanofibers as electro-catalyst for direct methanol fuel cells applications

In this paper, well decorated Pd-Ce bimetallic on carbon nanofibers were synthesized by the cost effective electrospinning process and effectively applied as electro- catalyst for the detection of methanol fuel cells (MFCs). The synthesized Pd-Ce bimetallic decorated carbon nanofibers were characterized in details using morphological, crystalline, structural, surface and electrochemical techniques. The crystalline and structural properties expressed the formation of Pd-Ce alloys on the surface of carbon nanofibers during the electrospinning process. The Pd-Ce bimetallic decorated carbon nanofibers were used to construct the effective anode for the high performance DMFCs and the cell performance evaluated by electrochemical measurements such as cyclovoltametry and electrochemical impedance. The Pd-Ce bimetallic decorated carbon nanofibers based electrode presented the reasonable performance toward the methanol oxidation as increasing the current density with the increase of methanol concentration in alkaline medium. The addition of methanol in alkaline medium significantly increased the current density, which suggests that Pd-Ce bimetallic decorated carbon nanofibers based electrode have excellent electrocatalytic activity towards the methanol. (C) 2016 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.