Influence of Water Molecules on CO Reduction at the Pt Electrocatalyst in the Membrane Electrode Assembly System.

CO electroreduction using a Pt catalyst in an aqueous solution system is known to produce only H. Recently, a remarkable result has been reported that CH can be obtained by reducing CO using a membrane electrode assembly (MEA) containing a Pt catalyst. A big difference that exists between the two systems is the number of water molecules.

Energy conversion efficiency comparison of different aqueous and semi-aqueous CO electroreduction systems.

An energy conversion efficiency index, that is independent of the anode reaction performance, is proposed for CO reduction in aqueous and semi-aqueous systems. The energy conversion efficiency of CO reduction under 107 typical conditions was calculated based on the derived formula. Notably, the resulting efficiency trends of the reduction products differed from their faradaic efficiency trends.

Highly efficient hole injection from Au electrode to fullerene-doped triphenylamine derivative layer.

Triphenylamine derivatives are superior hole-transport materials. For their application to high-functional organic semiconductor devices, efficient hole injection at the electrode/triphenylamine derivative interface is required. Herein, we report the design and evaluation of a Au/fullerene-doped α-phenyl-4'-[(4-methoxyphenyl)phenylamino]stilbene (TPA) buffer layer/TPA/Au layered device.

H-CO polymer electrolyte fuel cell that generates power while evolving CH at the PtRu/C cathode.

Generating electric power using CO as a reactant is challenging because the electroreduction of CO usually requires a large overpotential. Herein, we report the design and development of a polymer electrolyte fuel cell driven by feeding H and CO to the anode (Pt/C) and cathode (PtRu/C), respectively, based on their theoretical electrode potentials. Pt-Ru/C is a promising electrocatalysts for CO reduction at a low overpotential; consequently, CH is continuously produced through CO reduction with an enhanced faradaic efficiency (18.

Effect of chromium content on the corrosion resistance of ferritic stainless steels in sulfuric acid solution.

Due to recent increases in the price of Ni, steel use is currently undergoing a global shift from austenitic stainless steels to ferritic stainless steels. In this study, the corrosion behavior of four types ferritic stainless steels with different Cr contents was investigated to study the effect of Cr content on the corrosion resistance in a sulfuric acid solution. The polarization curves of the ferritic stainless steel with the highest Cr content indicated the best corrosion resistance.

Methanol oxidation enhanced by the presence of O(2) at novel Pt-C co-sputtered electrode.

In this paper, we describe a novel electrode that exhibits sensitized methanol electrooxidation in an oxygen atmosphere. A binary Pt-C electrode has been developed for use as the anode catalyst of a direct methanol fuel cell using a co-sputtering technique. Characterizations of the electrodes revealed that the sputtered Pt-C forms nanosize and phase-separated Pt and C domains, in which the Pt particle size decreases and its crystallinity gradually becomes amorphous with increasing C content.

Electric-field oriented polymer blend film for proton conduction.

A novel proton conductor has been realized by employing a ternary polymer blend system in combination with an electric-field orientation technique. A polymer film recast from a solution containing poly(acrylic acid), poly(vinyl butyral), and fluoroalkyl graft polymer under 2 kV.cm(-1) exhibited 10 times higher proton conductivity than that prepared without the external electric field.

Surface observation of solvent-impregnated Nafion membrane with atomic force microscopy.

Surface morphology modification of the Nafion 117 membrane has been investigated by atomic force microscopy. The effects of water and methanol on the topography and structure of the surface were studied using the contact and tapping atomic force microscopy modes. Nafion topography considerably changes when samples absorb water.