Platinum-based ternary catalysts for the electrooxidation of ethanol

Direct ethanol fuel cell (DEFC) as a promising device for converting chemical energy to electricity has been paid ever-increasing attention. However, the slow kinetics of ethanol electrooxidation at an anode hinders the application of DEFCs. Although Pt is the best catalyst among all the pure metal catalysts, it still has a relatively poor ability to break the C–C bond, is deactivated by the accumulated COad intermediates, and undergoes unwanted desired structure change over long-term operation. In recent years, the addition of other metals to form binary, ternary, and quaternary catalysts have significantly improved electroactivity and stability. Ternary catalysts can have numerous element combinations and complicated architectures and, therefore, have been the subject of considerable research. In this review, most of the reported ternary catalysts will be summarized and categorized according to their structure while discussing the essence of the role of each component.