Physicochemical properties and antibacterial activity of Pt nanoparticles on TiO2 nanotubes as electrocatalyst for methanol oxidation reaction

Abstract

TiO2 nanotubes were prepared electrochemically as pure Ti sheet in 0.5% HF anodized and annealed under nitrogen acquiring the TiO2 NTs-N2 support. By chemical deposition method using NaBH4 as reducing agent, platinum was deposited on TiO2 NTs-N2 support to gain the Pt NPs/TiO2 NTs-N2 electrocatalyst.Scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and X-ray diffraction (XRD) were applied for the physicochemical characterization of TiO2 NTs-N2 and Pt NPs/TiO2 NTs-N2. The XRD exhibited the an existence of platinum nanoparticles with an average crystallite size of 12 nm, which was regularly combined with TiO2 nanotubes. The Pt NPs/TiO2 NTs-N2 catalyst indicated considerably high electrocatalytic activity and stability for methanol electrocatalytic oxidation reaction in basic medium of KOH. The catalyst Pt NPs/TiO2 NTs-N2 was electrochemically characterized in a basic solution of methanol using cyclic voltammetry (CV) measurement in the absence and an existence of light. The higher poison tolerance and higher methanol oxidation current density observed for the Pt NPs/TiO2 NTs-N2 catalyst suggest that this catalyst supported on TiO2 NTs-N2 has a promising potential applications in the electro catalyst reactions. In addition, the synthesized platinum nanoparticles deposited on TiO2 nanotubes revealed a tremendous antibacterial effects against pathogenic microorganismm.