TY - JOUR
T1 - Longitudinal Hierarchy Co 3 O 4 Mesocrystals with High-dense Exposure Facets and Anisotropic Interfaces for Direct-Ethanol Fuel Cells
AU - Hassen, Diab
AU - El-Safty, Sherif A.
AU - Tsuchiya, Koichi
AU - Chatterjee, Abhijit
AU - Elmarakbi, Ahmed
AU - Shenashen, Mohamed A.
AU - Sakai, Masaru
PY - 2016/4/14
Y1 - 2016/4/14
N2 - Novel electrodes are needed for direct ethanol fuel cells with improved quality. Hierarchical engineering can produce catalysts composed of mesocrystals with many exposed active planes and multi-diffused voids. Here we report a simple, one-pot, hydrothermal method for fabricating Co 3 O 4 /carbon/substrate electrodes that provides control over the catalyst mesocrystal morphology (i.e., corn tubercle pellets or banana clusters oriented along nanotube domains, or layered lamina or multiple cantilevered sheets). These morphologies afforded catalysts with a high density of exposed active facets, a diverse range of mesopores in the cage interior, a window architecture, and vertical alignment to the substrate, which improved efficiency in an ethanol electrooxidation reaction compared with a conventional platinum/carbon electrode. On the atomic scale, the longitudinally aligned architecture of the Co 3 O 4 mesocrystals resulted in exposed low- and high-index single and interface surfaces that had improved electron transport and diffusion compared with currently used electrodes.
AB - Novel electrodes are needed for direct ethanol fuel cells with improved quality. Hierarchical engineering can produce catalysts composed of mesocrystals with many exposed active planes and multi-diffused voids. Here we report a simple, one-pot, hydrothermal method for fabricating Co 3 O 4 /carbon/substrate electrodes that provides control over the catalyst mesocrystal morphology (i.e., corn tubercle pellets or banana clusters oriented along nanotube domains, or layered lamina or multiple cantilevered sheets). These morphologies afforded catalysts with a high density of exposed active facets, a diverse range of mesopores in the cage interior, a window architecture, and vertical alignment to the substrate, which improved efficiency in an ethanol electrooxidation reaction compared with a conventional platinum/carbon electrode. On the atomic scale, the longitudinally aligned architecture of the Co 3 O 4 mesocrystals resulted in exposed low- and high-index single and interface surfaces that had improved electron transport and diffusion compared with currently used electrodes.
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U2 - 10.1038/srep24330
DO - 10.1038/srep24330
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:84963818697
VL - 6
JO - Scientific Reports
JF - Scientific Reports
SN - 2045-2322
M1 - 24330
ER -