• Bulletin of the Korean Chemical Society
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• v.31 no.11
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• pp.3145-3150
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• 2010

Ruthenium catalysts modified by selenium have been introduced as alternative materials to Pt in Direct methanol fuel cells (DMFCs). RuSe nano-particles were synthesized on the Vulcan XC72R carbon supports via polyol method. The prepared catalysts were electrochemically and physically characterized by cyclic voltammetry (CV,) linear sweep voltammetry, methanol tolerance test, X-ray diffraction (XRD), Transmission electron microscopy (TEM), Energydispersive Spectrometer (EDS) and X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS). Increasing the Se concentration up to 20 at % increased the electro-catalytic activity for the oxygen reduction. By increasing Se amount, Ru metallic form on the surface was increased. The $Ru_{80}Se_{20}$/C catalysts showed the highest oxygen reduction reaction (ORR) activity and outstanding methanol tolerant property in half cell tests as well as single cell test.