Influence of MCM-41 as a co-support of Pt–ZnO/C for avoiding poisoning effects during the electrooxidation reaction of bioethanol waste for energy conversion system applications

Highlights: • Bioethanol waste was electro-oxidized up to 500 cycles on Pt–ZnO/C/MCM-41. • The electrocatalyst was synthesized with low Pt content. • MCM-41 as a co-support avoids the poisoning by CO adsorption. • The co-support enhances the intermediate species management on the surface. The electrooxidation of bioethanol waste up to 500 cycles on Pt–ZnO/C and Pt–ZnO/C/MCM-41 is discussed in this work. The electrocatalyst based on Pt–ZnO/C was synthesized by reverse microemulsion, and the MCM-41 co-support was prepared by sol-gel. Pt–ZnO/C/MCM-41 was prepared by the mechanical mixing of Pt–ZnO/C and MCM-41. The co-supported material was characterized by SEM, XRD, BET, Raman Spectroscopy, and electrochemical analysis. The electrooxidation reaction of bioethanol waste was investigated by cyclic voltammetry in an electrochemical cell, acid medium, at 25 °C. Pt–ZnO/C/MCM-41 showed better electrochemical characteristics than Pt–ZnO/C during the 500 cycles of the electrooxidation reaction. It seems the compound formed by ZnO/C/MCM-41 could play an essential role in avoiding the poisoning effects of Pt during the electrooxidation reaction. We propose a feasible reaction mechanism to explain the complete electrooxidation reaction of bioethanol waste on the co-supported electrocatalyst.