Mild synthesis of layer-by-layer SnO2 nanosheet/Pt/graphene composites as catalysts for ethanol electro-oxidation

We designed and synthesized a layer-by-layer SnO 2 /Pt/graphene electro-catalyst through multi-microwave method. The experimental results show that the activity for the ethanol oxidation strongly depends on the content of graphene and the highest catalytic activity occurs at ∼30 wt%, followed by ∼40 wt%, and ∼20 wt%. Without any other metal component, the ultrathin SnO 2 /Pt/graphene exhibits enhanced not only EOR activity but also durability compared with Pt/graphene. More importantly, the differential electrochemical mass spectrometry (DEMS) study reveals that the layer-by-layer ultrathin SnO 2 /Pt/graphene composites induces improved selectivity to acetic acid (CH 3 COOH) and carbon dioxide (CO 2 ) compared to Pt/graphene. The present work sheds light on ways to optimize electro-catalysts for EOR by smartly tailoring the nanostructure of composition of materials based on platinum, metal oxide and carbon.