Pretreatment of Gold Nanoparticle Multi-Walled Carbon Nanotube Composites for Catalytic Activity toward Hydrogen Generation Reaction

Abstract

In this study, the in-situ functionalization of gold nanoparticles onto carbon nanotubes was compared. The gold nanoparticle multi-walled carbon nanotube composites (AuMWCNT) were pretreated by two methods, one using sonication and the other incipient wetness impregnation (IWI). The produced composites were characterized using Transmission Electron Microscopy (TEM), Scanning Electron Microscopy (SEM), and Energy Dispersive Spectroscopy (SEM-EDS). Catalytic activity of the composites with hydrogen feedstock materials was also tested, finding the stirred pretreatment most effective evolving hydrogen gas at a rate of 0.333 L mol−1 min−1.