posted on 2023-12-18, 13:04authored byNiusha Shakibi Nia, Christoph Griesser, Thomas Mairegger, Eva-Maria Wernig, Johannes Bernardi, Engelbert Portenkirchner, Simon Penner, Julia Kunze-Liebhäuser
The compound material
titanium oxycarbide (TiOC) is found to be
an effective electrocatalyst for the electrochemical oxidation of
ethanol to CO2. The complete course of this reaction is
one of the main challenges in direct ethanol fuel cells (DEFCs). While
TiOC has previously been investigated as catalyst support material
only, in this study we show that TiOC alone is able to oxidize ethanol
to acetaldehyde without the need of expensive noble metal catalysts
like Pt. It is suggested that this behavior is attributed to the presence
of both undercoordinated sites, which allow ethanol to adsorb, and
oxygenated sites, which facilitate the activation of water. This is
a milestone in DEFC research and development and opens up innovative
possibilities for the design of catalyst materials for intermediate
temperature fuel cells.