Methyl orange degradation enhanced by hydrogen spillover onto platinum nanocatalyst surface

Abstract

Following a thermal reduction method, platinum nanoparticles were synthesized and stabilized by polyvinylpyrrolidone. The colloidal platinum nanoparticles were stable for more than 3 months. The micrograph analysis unveiled that the colloidal platinum nanoparticles were well dispersed with an average size of 2.53 nm. The sol–gel‐based inverse micelle strategy was applied to synthesize mesoporous iron oxide material. The colloidal platinum nanoparticles were deposited on mesoporous iron oxide through the capillary inclusion method. The small‐angle X‐ray scattering analysis indicated that the dimension of platinum nanoparticles deposited on mesoporous iron oxide (Pt‐Fe2O3) was 2.64 nm. X‐ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) data showed that the binding energy on Pt‐Fe2O3 surface decreased owing to mesoporous support–nanoparticle interaction. Both colloidal and deposited platinum nanocatalysts improved the degradation of methyl orange under reduction conditions. The activation energy on the deposited platinum nanocatalyst interface (2.66 kJ mol−1) was significantly lowered compared with the one on the colloidal platinum nanocatalyst interface (40.63 ± 0.53 kJ mol−1).