Direct methanol fuel cells (DMFC) are being investigated as a portable energy conversion device for military and commercial applications. DMFCs offer the potential to efficiently extract electricity from a dense liquid fuel. However, improvements in materials properties and lowering the cost of the electrocatalysts used in a DMFC are necessary for commercialization of the technology. The cathode electrocatalyst is a critical issue in DMFC because the state-of-the-art catalyst, platinum, is very expensive and rare, and its performance is diminished by methanol that crosses over from the anode to the cathode through the Nafion membrane. This thesis investigates the addition of platinum to a palladium-cobalt nanoalloy electrocatalyst supported on carbon black in order to improve catalyst activity for the oxygen reduction reaction (ORR) and catalyst stability against dissolution in acidic environment without significantly reducing the methanol-tolerance of the catalyst. Platinum was added to the palladium-cobalt nanoalloy catalyst using two synthesis methods. In the first method, platinum was directly alloyed with palladium and cobalt using a polyol reduction method, followed by heat treatment in a reducing atmosphere to form catalysts with 11 and 22 atom % platinum. In the second method, platinum was added to a palladium-cobalt alloy by galvanic displacement reaction to form catalysts with 10 and 22 atom % platinum. The palladium cobalt alloy was synthesized using a polyol method, followed by heat treatment in a reducing atmosphere to alloy the nanoparticles before the Pt displacement. It was found that both methods significantly improve catalyst activity and stability, with the displaced catalysts showing a higher activity than the corresponding alloy catalyst. However the alloy catalysts showed similar resistance to dissolution as the displaced catalysts, and the alloyed catalysts were more tolerant to methanol. The displaced catalyst with 22 atom % platinum (8 wt. % Pt overall) performed similar to a 20 wt. % commercial platinum catalyst in both RDE and single cell DMFC tests. The 10 and 22 atom % Pt displaced catalysts and 22 atom % Pt alloyed all showed higher Pt mass specific activities than a commercial Pt catalyst. / text

Des nouveaux catalyseurs bimétalliques à base de palladium et de cuivre ont été développés. Deux voies de préparation ont été testées : l'imprégnation successive (TSI) et la co-imprégnation (CI) en utilisant la zéolithe 4Å (4A) et l'oxyde mixte MgAlxOy comme support. Les catalyseurs ont été caractérisés à l'état frais et testés dans la réaction de couplage Suzuki–Miyaura afin de comparer leurs activités, sélectivités et stabilités. L'étude de stabilité nous a montré que le catalyseur Cu-Pd-4A-TSI restait actif pendant six cycles alors que l'activité du catalyseur Cu-Pd-4A-CI diminuait. Sur le support MgAlxOy, le catalyseur CI était stable pendant six cycles contrairement au catalyseur TSI. Nous avons montré que le point clé pour l'obtention d'une bonne activité et stabilité est la présence de la phase active correspondant à l'alliage Cu/Pd 1/1 identifiée grâce à la caractérisation des catalyseurs et ce quelle que soit la méthode de préparation des catalyseurs. Une différence cruciale existe entre les catalyseurs supportés sur MgAlxOy et 4A : le catalyseur Cu–Pd supporté sur MgAlxOy permet de réduire le temps de réaction de moitié pour une même conversion par rapport à Cu-Pd-4A-TSI. De plus, l'utilisation d'un support plus basique permet, dans une certaine mesure, la diminution de la quantité de la base ajoutée durant la réaction. La réaction Petasis-borono Mannich a été aussi effectuée avec succès sur ces catalyseurs. / New bimetallic palladium/copper catalysts were developed by successive impregnation (TSI) and co-impregnation (CI) on 4Å molecular sieve (4A) and MgAlO mixed oxides supports. The fresh catalysts were characterised and tested in the Suzuki–Miyaura reaction to test their activity, selectivity and stability. It was observed that while the Cu-Pd-4A-TSI catalyst kept its activity during six cycles that of the Cu-Pd-4A-CI dropped. On MgAlO support the catalyst prepared with CI proved to be stable even for six runs contrary to TSI. The active phase of the reaction – namely the Cu–Pd alloy with atomic ratio 1:1 - was determined with the help of catalyst characterisation of the recovered catalysts. This observation confirms that whatever the way of preparation or the support is, the key-point is the presence of Pd-Cu 1:1 particles to enhance the catalytic performances. A crucial difference between the MgAlO and 4A supported catalyst was found in the reaction time necessary for the Suzuki–Miyaura reaction. With the Cu-Pd-MgAl-CI catalyst the reaction time could be reduced to thirty minutes contrary to one hour with Cu-Pd-4A-TSI. Moreover it was concluded that with a more basic support the reduction of the quantity of the base was possible however it brought slightly decreasing yield. The Petasis-borono Mannich reaction was also performed in the presence of each mono-and bimetallic catalysts.