Core–shell titanium dioxide /carbon nanofibers decorated nickel nanoparticles as supports for electrocatalytic oxidation of ethanol

Abstract

Abstract Recently alcohol fuel cells has been increased consideration because of their environmental friendliness, high energy conversion efficiency and low emissions. Many effort have been made to improve the electro-oxidation performance of alcohols such as methanol, ethanol and propanol. In this work, a new method for ethanol oxidation based on core–shell titanium dioxide / carbon nanofibers (TiO2@C NFs), TiO2 as a core and carbon as a shell, decorated Ni nanoparticles (NiNPs) is presented. TiO2@C NFs were prepared by mixing the electrospinning technique and hydrothermal method. Nickel nanoparticles were electrodeposed on the surface of TiO2@C NFs denoted as TiO2@C- Ni. The catalyst was characterized by SEM and electrochemical methods. Performance of ethanol oxidation was investigated in aqueous NaOH solutions by chronoamperometry and cyclic voltammetry. The electrochemical measurements showed that this electrode is effective and has good electrocatalytic activity for ethanol oxidation and the structures of nanofibers have important effect on the electrooxidation of ethanol. The synergy between Ni, carbon shell and TiO2 support, boost ethanol oxidation on TiO2@C- Ni. Keywords: Ethanol electrooxidation; Electrospinning; Nickel nanoparticles; Core–shell titanium dioxide /carbon nanofibers