Investigating performance of flower-like CoCu-MOF supported on carbon felt as a binder-free anode electrode in direct ethanol fuel cell

Metal-Organic Frameworks (MOFs) have offered a new superior choice for designing the distribution of metal mixtures in carbon substrates for energy applications. Herein, the Co-MOF, Cu-MOF, and CoCu-MOF have been synthesized and characterized by Fourier transformation infrared spectroscopy (FT-IR), X-ray diffraction (XRD), transmission electron microscopy (TEM), field emission scanning electron microscopy (FE-SEM), Raman spectroscopy, Brunauer–Emmett–Teller (BET), and X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) techniques. The performance of the as-prepared electrocatalysts was studied in ethanol oxidation reaction (EOR) through cyclic voltammetry (CV), chronoamperometry (CA), chronopotentiometry (CP), and electrochemical impedance spectroscopy (EIS) methods. The cyclic voltammetry results showed that CoCu-MOF has a much higher ethanol oxidation current density (9.22 mA cm−2) compared to Co-MOF (0.55 mA cm−2) and Cu-MOF (0.28 mA cm−2). As was expected, all the half-cell electrocatalytic measurement results showed that the CoCu-MOF has higher efficiency and best durability toward EOR. Based on half-cell results and the unique characteristics of carbon felt (CF), CoCu-MOF was arrayed on highly conductive three-dimensional (3D) CF (CoCu–MOF/CF) as support by the in-situ solvothermal method. The CoCu-MOF/CF used as a novel binder-free low cost anode electrode in the direct ethanol fuel cell (DEFC). The result of single-cell studies exhibited that the CoCu-MOF/CF in a DEFC operating at 60°C delivered a 0.865 V open-circuit potential and 22.85 mW cm−2 power density. The structural advantages such as 3D architecture, abundant active sites, and the synergistic effect between Co and Cu resulted in the impressive electrocatalytic activity of CoCu-MOF for EOR behavior. Therefore, this study would open a new facial approach to designing effective MOF-based electrocatalysts as efficient catalyst support for direct liquid fuel cells.