Longitudinal Hierarchy Co3O4 Mesocrystals with High-dense Exposure Facets and Anisotropic Interfaces for Direct-Ethanol Fuel Cells

Diab Hassen, Sherif A. El-Safty*, Koichi Tsuchiya, Abhijit Chatterjee, Ahmed Elmarakbi, Mohamed A. Shenashen, Masaru Sakai

*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

59 Citations (Scopus)
16 Downloads (Pure)

Abstract

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.

Original languageEnglish
Article number24330
Number of pages12
JournalScientific Reports
Volume6
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 14 Apr 2016

Fingerprint

Dive into the research topics of 'Longitudinal Hierarchy Co3O4 Mesocrystals with High-dense Exposure Facets and Anisotropic Interfaces for Direct-Ethanol Fuel Cells'. Together they form a unique fingerprint.

Cite this