3D Nitrogen-Doped Porous Carbon Supported Pt Catalyst for Electrocatalytic Oxidation of Glucose

Abstract

Glucose fuel cells have attracted widespread attention in the biomedical field due to their ability to generate electrical energy continuously. The development of this technology has great potential in the application of powering implantable medical devices. However, the efficiency of the glucose oxidation reaction at the anode of the fuel cell is low, and a catalyst needs to be added to improve the reaction efficiency. Platinum (Pt) catalysts are prone to agglomerate during use, which limits the improvement of their properties such as catalytic activity and stability. To address this problem, in this paper, a three-dimensional ( 3D) N-doped porous carbon (NCZIF-8) material with a large specific surface area was prepared as a catalyst carrier using ZIF-8 as a precursor. Low loading rate of platinum (10 wt. %) was prepared (10% Pt/NCZIF-8) and used as catalysts for glucose oxidation reaction. The materials were structurally characterized by XRD, SEM, TEM, Raman and FT-IR, etc. The electrocatalytic properties of the materials were characterized using an electrochemical workstation. It was shown that the incorporation of NCZIF-8 carrier promotes the dispersion of Pt nanoparticles (NPs) and the utilization of the catalyst, which enhances the catalytic activity and stability of catalysts during electrocatalytic glucose oxidation. After 300 times cyclic voltammetry (CV) tests, the peak current density of 10% Pt/NCZIF-8 only decreased by 21. 12% and 8. 59% in the double-layer region and oxygen region, respectively, indicating the excellent stability of the catalyst. This kind of catalyst with low loading rate of precious metal has great potential for its practical application by improving catalyst utilization, which not only improves the catalytic efficiency but also reduces the material cost.