Evaluation of bimetallic catalyst PtAg/C as a glucose-tolerant oxygen reduction cathode

► PtAg is characterized by multiple layers of uniformly distributed particulates. ► The catalyst is evaluated for the oxygen reduction and compared with Pt/C. ► Bimetallic catalyst shows high selectivity for ORR in the presence of glucose. ► PtAg/C is tested as cathode in a microfluidic fuel cell that uses glucose. ► Selectivity and better performance was obtained using PtAg/C compared with Pt/C. PtAg/C nanoparticles were synthesized by chemical reduction and evaluated for the oxygen reduction reaction (ORR) in the absence and presence of glucose. PtAg/C catalyst formed onion-like layered structures, which are uniformly distributed on the support. PtAg/C showed activity comparable to that of Pt/C ETEK for ORR. Further, the catalyst exhibited high selectivity for ORR in the presence of glucose. PtAg/C was evaluated as cathode in a microfluidic fuel cell operated with high concentration of glucose (100mM) as fuel. The results demonstrated that the use of PtAg/C as cathode electrode achieved higher selectivity and better performance compared with Pt/C catalyst.