PtRu supported on mesoporous carbons for DMFC application

We prepared cryogel mesoporous carbons of different pore-size distribution by sol-gel synthesis. On one selected carbon we deposited PtRu by the colloidal method and the resulting electrocatalytic system, C656/PtRu-A, was characterized in passive and active DMFCs by V-I and P-I plots. The results are reported and compared to those of PtRu supported by impregnation on the same carbon (C656/PtRu-B) and to those of a commercial Vulcan XC72R/PtRu electrocatalytic system. Both C656/PtRu-A and C656/PtRu-B performed better than Vulcan/PtRu. Although the colloidal syntheses should give catalysts with improved properties compared to those obtained by simpler impregnation methods, we obtained a catalytic system with a lower Ru content than expected, which would explain the non-optimized performance of C656/PtRu-A. Indeed, the C656/PtRu-B system performed better, providing 28 W g-1 in active DMFC at 60°C.