Investigating the effect of Polyvinylpyrrolidone on the Pt-Ni/Ni/carbon paper electrode manufacturing process to improve its performance for methanol oxidation reaction in alkaline media

Methanol electrochemical oxidation reaction is interesting for researchers in order to design electrodes to respond to this reaction at a high rate.One of the methods of making an electrode is the use of electro-deposition treatment. Platinum and Nickel are common electrocatalysts which can be electrodeposited on carbon paper as electrode for methanol oxidation reaction (MOR). The electro-deposition processes can be affected with various factors. Polyvinylpyrrolidone (PVP) presence in electro-deposition solution is the factor can influence on property of prepared electrocatalystsfor MOR. At this work for preparing modified electrodes, first, the nickel is deposited on the carbon paper, and then on it, a mixture of platinum and nickel is deposited by cyclic voltammetry method(potential range: -0.850 V to 0.3 V vs. Ag/AgCl for Nickel and -0.850 V to 0.650 V vs. Ag/AgCl for Platinum and Nickel mixture, scan rate 50 mV s-1, cycle number 40).For studying the PVP (0.005 M) effect on property of electrodeposited particles, the PVP was add to electrodeposition solution at three state: Ni electro-deposition, Pt-Ni electro-deposition and Pt-Ni/Ni electro-deposition. Electrochemical methods like as linear sweep voltammetry(LSV), cyclic voltammetry(CV) and impedance spectroscopy(EIS)was used for investigating fabricated electrodes for MOR. Based on electro chemical analysis of prepared electro catalysts, thepresence of PVP to both electro-deposition processes (Ni and Ni-Pt) is more effective than other states for the performance of fabricated electrodes to MOR in alkaline media.