Decoration of carbon-supported Pt catalysts with Sn to promote electro-oxidation of ethanol

Carbon-supported Pt/Sn catalysts were prepared by decorating carbon-supported Pt with Sn, by decorating carbon-supported Sn with Pt, and by co-deposition of Pt and Sn on carbon. All of the Pt/Sn catalysts exhibited greatly enhanced activities for ethanol oxidation relative to Pt alone, with the Sn decorated Pt catalyst showing the best performance. The latter catalyst was shown by XPS to contain no metallic Sn, emphasizing the importance of surface Sn oxide species in the activation of Pt for ethanol oxidation. Decoration of Sn with Pt is shown to be a feasible way to increase Pt utilization.