Abstract
The decreasing amount of fossil fuels and the recent concerns about global warming have been
driving forces for developing alternative and renewable energy sources such as biomass-derived
liquid fuels. The PtSn/C nanocatalyst is now considered as the most effective catalyst for the anode
performance of the direct ethanol fuel cell [1]. The optimum Pt/Sn ratio and their degree of alloying,
however, still remain controversial; furthermore, the catalyst preparation procedure can significantly
affect the catalyst's nature and performance [2-3]. To better understand the formation processes of
the PtSn alloy nanoparticles on an atomic scale we studied the in-situ synthesis processes of PtSn/C
alloy nanocatalysts inside a JEOL 2200FS aberration-corrected electron microscope.
