Pt nanoparticles supported on NiTiO3/C as electrocatalyst towards high performance Methanol Oxidation Reaction

Abstract

Pt nanoparticles supported on NiTiO3/C has been synthesized by a wet chemical method, using the corresponding metal precursors and citric acid as a complexing reagent. The nanocomposite has been characterized using X-ray diffraction (XRD), Transmission Electron Microscope (TEM) and X-ray Photoelectron Spectroscopy (XPS) respectively. The electrocatalytic Methanol Oxidation Reaction (MOR) has been performed using Pt-NiTiO3/C catalyst in both alkaline and acid medium. Analysis using cyclic voltammetry (CV), steady state polarization (SSP), and chronoamperometry (CA) techniques clearly demonstrate that Pt-NiTiO3/C catalyst exhibits higher performance in methanol oxidation in alkaline medium compared to acid medium. The results demonstrate that NiTiO3 has significant promotion effect on the electrocatalytic activity and stability for the methanol electro-oxidation. The enhanced activity is attributed to the ability of NiTiO3 to promote COads oxidation through strong interaction with Pt (which is in close proximity to NiTiO3). Pt-NiTiO3/C appears to be a promising anode catalyst for direct methanol fuel cells.