Effects of CeO₂ pre-calcined at different temperatures on the performance of Pt/CeO₂–C electrocatalyst for methanol oxidation reaction

Pt/CeO₂–C catalysts with CeO₂ pre-calcined at 300–600°C were synthesized by combining hydrothermal calcination and wet impregnation. The effects of the pre-calcined CeO₂ on the performance of Pt/CeO₂–C catalysts in methanol oxidation were investigated. The Pt/CeO₂–C catalysts with pre-calcined CeO₂ at 300–600°C showed an average particle size of 2.6–2.9 nm and exhibited better methanol electro-oxidation catalytic activity than the commercial Pt/C catalyst. In specific, the Pt/CeO₂–C catalysts with pre-calcined CeO₂ at 400°C displayed the highest electrochemical surface area value of 68.14 m²·g⁻¹ and I_f/I_b ratio (the ratio of the forward scanning peak current density (I_f) and the backward scanning peak current density (I_b)) of 1.26, which are considerably larger than those (53.23 m²·g⁻¹ and 0.79, respectively) of the commercial Pt/C catalyst, implying greatly enhanced CO tolerance.