Catalisadores mistos do tipo PtSn/C: compostos de coordenação aplicados na eletro-oxidação de etanol

Abstract

The limitation of energy resources and the increase in energy consumption favor research into alternative energy generation systems. In this sense, fuel cells (CaC) represent an approach to clean energy generation. Over the years, cells that use alcohol as fuel called DAFC's (Direct Alcohol Fuel Cells) have emerged. The alcohols that have been most studied for this purpose are methanol and ethanol. These cells have numerous advantages, such as not needing to store hydrogen or generate it through hydrocarbon reform. Currently, studies have been directed towards the application of catalytic materials with low platinum content in order to reduce their operating costs. Therefore, the study of coordination compounds as catalysts becomes interesting for this purpose. This study describes the synthesis and characterization of the electrochemical properties of two complexes containing Schiff's base of the Salophen type, in which it presents substituted aromatic diimines, with satisfactory yields. These synthesized compounds were characterized by melting point, solubility, conductivity measurements, vibrational spectroscopy in the IR region, absorption spectroscopy in the UV-vis region and cyclic voltammetry; and the ligands were also characterized by Nuclear Magnetic Resonance. Preliminary results indicate that the PtSn/C:[Ru(NO2-Salophen)]K electrode in the 4:1 ratio (metal:complex) improves the catalytic activity in the electro-oxidation of ethanol compared to PtSn/C, [Ru(NO2- Salophen)]K and [Rutri(NO2-Salophen)] alone, thus presenting a good potential for use in direct ethanol fuel cells (DEFCs).