An active catalyst system for proton reduction composed of a bipyridyl platinum complex and a polymer membrane

Abstract

Electrocatalysis for the H + reduction with bis(2.2'-bipyridyl ) Pt complex (P((bpy 2 2+ in a polymer matrix was studied. When the cyclic voltammogram (CV) was measured at a basal-plane pyrolytic graphite (BPG) electrode coated with a Nafion® (Nf) membrane incorporating Pt(bpy) 2 2+ (denoted as BPG/Nf[Pt(bpy) 2 2+ ]), a remarkable growth of the cathodic current due to H + reduction was observed below -0.4 V (vs. Ag/AgCl) in a repeated scanning. A much higher amount of H 2 was obtained with the system BPG/Nf[Pt(bpy) 2 2+ ] showed the formation of zero-valent Pt after the electrochemical process, indicating that H + reduction begins to take place after formation of the catalytically active species. This work shows that a highly active catalyst system for H + reduction can be fabricated from a noble metal complex and a polymer matrix.