Enhanced membraneless fuel cells by electrooxidation of ethylene glycol with a nanostructured cobalt metal catalyst

The advancement of effective and long-lasting electrocatalysts for energy storage devices is crucial to reduce the impact of the energy crisis. In this study, a two-stage reduction process was used to synthesize carbon-supported cobalt alloy nanocatalysts with varying atomic ratios of cobalt, nickel and iron. The formed alloy nanocatalysts were investigated using energy-dispersive X-ray spectroscopy, X-ray diffraction, and transmission electron microscopy to determine their physicochemical characterization. According to XRD results, Cobalt-based alloy nanocatalysts form a face-centered cubic solid solution pattern, illustrating thoroughly mixed ternary metal solid solutions. Transmission electron micrographs also demonstrated that samples of carbon-based cobalt alloys displayed homogeneous dispersion at particle sizes ranging from 18 to 37 nm. Measurements of cyclic voltammetry, linear sweep voltammetry, and chronoamperometry revealed that iron alloy samples exhibited much greater electrochemical activity than non-iron alloy samples. The alloy nanocatalysts were evaluated as anodes for the electrooxidation of ethylene glycol in a single membraneless fuel cell to assess their robustness and efficiency at ambient temperature. Remarkably, in line with the results of cyclic voltammetry and chronoamperometry, the single-cell test showed that the ternary anode works better than its counterparts. The significantly higher electrochemical activity was observed for alloy nanocatalysts containing iron than for non-iron alloy catalysts. Iron stimulates nickel sites to oxidize cobalt to cobalt oxyhydroxides at lower over-potentials, which contributes to the improved performance of ternary alloy catalysts containing iron.