The synthesis of ternary catalysts is difficult because it is necessary to obtain a good mixture of the three elements, which are distributed in a designed way within a nanoparticle having the size in the range of 10 nm [1, 2]. Catalysts, which effectively oxidize ethanol to CO₂, contain PtRh nanoparticles (NPs) connected to SnO₂ NPs [3-6]. Such catalyst must also assure an effective electron transfer from the catalyst grain to the carbon support. Thus it is necessary to take into account the electron transport through the SnO₂ part of the PtRh/SnO₂ catalyst. The conductivity of the SnO₂ NPs can be improved by doping. The synthesis and morphology of SnO₂ NPs doped by F and Sb was described in [7]. PtRh NPs and SnO₂ NPs were synthesized separately using the polyol method. Dynamic light scattering (DLS), XRD and TEM techniques were used to obtain the global and local information about the size of the obtained NPs. Ternary PtRh/SnO₂ NPs were produced using previously synthesized and characterized SnO₂ colloid, to which Pt and Rh salts were added and reduced by ethylene glycol. All the obtained catalysts were deposited on amorphous carbon and then characterized by high-resolution electron microscopy, Figure 1. Electrocatalytic activity towards ethanol oxidation (EOR) was assessed by cyclic voltammetry. The relation between the structure of the nanocatalysts grains and their activity towards EOR at room temperature was discussed.

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Acknowledgements

The authors thank the Center for Innovation and Technology Transfer of the Rzeszow University and the Institute of Engineering Materials and Biomaterials of the Silesian University of Technology for the use of the Osiris FEI TEM and the Titan FEI TEM instruments, respectively. Financial support from the Polish National Science Centre (NCN), grant UMO-2014/13/B/ST5/04497 is acknowledged. Partial financial support by Pik-Instruments is greatly acknowledged.