Affiliation:
1. Department of Chemical Sciences, University of Johannesburg, P.O. Box 17011, Doornfontein 2028, South Africa
Abstract
Abstract
The severe corrosion of carbon supports in harsh fuel cell conditions has attracted the development of ceramic-based catalyst supports. Platinum nanoparticles supported on the carbon nanodots (CNDs)-titania (TiO2) composite were synthesized in three steps: Firstly, an inorganic support, titania (TiO2) was synthesized by a hydrolysis method. Secondly, the (CNDs-titania) nanocomposite support was prepared by sonicating pre-synthesized carbon nanodots (CNDs) and TiO2 in equal volumes of ethylene glycol/water solution. Lastly, nanosized Pt particles were deposited onto the CNDs-titania composite by a polyol method to form a platinum/(CNDs-titania nanocatalyst. X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS), transmission electron microscope (TEM), and X-ray difractommetry (XRD) were used to study surface morphology of the synthesized materials. Platinum loading onto the (CNDs-titania) composite support was quantified by ICP-OES. The electrooxidation of alcohol fuels was investigated in acidic electrolytes using chronoamperometric and voltammetric techniques. It was noted that the addition of TiO2 increases electroactivity of the nanocatalysts. The platinum/(CNDs-titania) nanocatalyst exhibited superior electroactivity during methanol and ethanol electrooxidation compared to the platinum/CNDs and Pt/C benchmark standards. Chronoamperometry (CA) curves showed that the platinum/(CNDs-titania) nanocatalyst exhibited outstanding anti-poisoning properties relative to the platinum/CNDs and commercial Pt/C nanocatalysts.
Funder
National Research Foundation
Subject
Mechanical Engineering,Mechanics of Materials,Energy Engineering and Power Technology,Renewable Energy, Sustainability and the Environment,Electronic, Optical and Magnetic Materials
Cited by
2 articles.
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