Mesoporous Tungsten Carbide Supported Pt and Their Electro Catalytic Activity for Methanol Electro-oxidation

Abstract

Mesoporous tungsten carbide supported Pt nanoparticles(Pt/m-WC) with uniform size were prepared using hard template method and H2 PtCl6 as the Pt precursor. The crystal phase, structure and morphology of products were characterized with X-ray powder diffraction(XRD), transmission electronic microscope(TEM), and X-ray photoelectron spectrocope(XPS). Results show that the tungsten carbide supporter has pure tungsten carbide phase with pore size of about 10-20 nm. Pt particles(3.4 nm mean size) which are mainly in the metallic form are dispersed on the external walls and pores of m-WC. The electro-catalytic activity of the prepared Pt/m-WC towards the oxidation of methanol was investigated using cyclic voltammetry and chronoamperometry. In comparison to the common tungsten carbide supported Pt catalyst(Pt/c-WC), the Pt/m-WC catalysts exhibits high electrocatalytic activity, strong anti-poisoning ability and good stability.