Novel Sol‐Gel Synthesis and Characterization of High‐Surfacearea Pt‐Ru Catalysts as Anodes for Direct Methanol Fuel Cells

A novel complexation based sol-gel process has been developed to synthesize Pt-50at.% Ru based anode catalysts possessing high specific surface area with good catalytic activity. A homogeneous amorphous gel was successfully synthesized by complexing platinum(II) acetylacetonate and ruthenium(III) acetylacetonate with tetramethylammonium hydroxide (TMAH) used as a complexing agent. Phase pure Pt(Ru) solid solution of nominal composition Pt-50at.% Ru, possessing high specific surface area (∼75m 2 /g-140m 2 /g) were successfully produced by controlled removal of carbonaceous species generated from the as-prepared precursor. The controlled removal of carbon related species has been successfully performed by controlled thermal treatment of the precursor using controlled oxidizing atmospheres such as 1% O 2 balanced with ultrahigh purity (UHP) argon. It has been identified that the nanocrystalline Pt(Ru) solid solution of nominal composition Pt-50at.% Ru possessing good chemical homogeneity with less amount of non-conducting carbon reveals an excellent catalytic activity, demonstrating the potential of the novel sol-gel process for synthesizing high-performance catalysts for direct methanol fuel cells.