Nickel coating on carbon nanotubes and PProDOT-2CH2SH supported Pt nanoparticles as the electrocatalyst for methanol oxidation reaction

Abstract

The electricity generated by direct methanol fuel cells (DMFCs) comes from methanol oxidation reaction (MOR), which is affected by electrocatalytic activity of anode materials. Herein, Pt nanoparticles supported by the composite of thiol group grafted poly(3,4-propylenedioxythiophene) (PProDOT-2CH2SH) and Ni–N co-doped bamboo-like carbon nanotubes (Ni-NCNT) are prepared and proposed as an anode material for DMFCs. The results from morphological analysis show that the Pt nanoparticles uniformly disperse on the surface of support (PProDOT-2CH2SH/Ni-NCNT) with bamboo-like structure, and there is an electronic effect between the Pt and Ni confirmed by X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy analysis. Electrochemical tests reveal that the PProDOT-2CH2SH/Ni-NCNT/Pt catalyst demonstrates good electrocatalytic activity for the MOR in acidic electrolyte, and the catalyst has higher resistance to CO poisoning than commercial Pt/C. The mass activity (MA) of catalyst is up to 1670.54 mA mgPt−1 with an electrochemical active surface area (ECSA) of 98.0 m2 g−1, and the catalyst maintains good performance after 800 cycles. This work provides a high-performance MOR catalyst in practical application for DMFCs.