The potential of novel carbon nanocages as a carbon support for an enhanced methanol electro‐oxidation reaction in a direct methanol fuel cell

Summary In this study, we introduce the potential for a new catalyst support, namely, carbon nanocages (CNCs) for anodic direct methanol fuel cell (DMFC). The synthesis, characterization and catalytic activities of four electrocatalysts, PtRu/CNC, PtNi/CNC, PtFe/CNC and PtCo/CNC, have been investigated. These electrocatalysts are synthesized using pyrolysis, followed by a microwave‐assisted ethylene glycol reduction method. From X‐ray diffraction analysis, PtNi/CNC and PtRu/CNC showed the smallest crystallite particle size of Pt‐alloy, which corresponded to the (111) plane. The Raman spectra confirmed the presence of the carbon support material in all prepared electrocatalysts. The ratio value of the D band and G band (ID/IG) of all prepared samples was not much different within the electrocatalyst and CNC. The ID/IG values calculated for the CNC, PtNi/CNC, PtRu/CNC, PtCo/CNC and PtFe/CNC electrocatalysts were 0.90, 0.89, 0.83, 0.78 and 0.77, respectively. Therefore, the number of defects of graphitization in increasing order (ID/IG) was PtFe/CNC