Abstract
To improve the performance of PtRu/nitrogen-doped graphene composite carbon nanofibers, the composite carbon nanofibers were thermally compensated by deep cryogenic treatment (DCT), which realized the morphology reconstruction of composite carbon nanofibers. The effects of different DCT times were compared: 12 h, 18 h, and 24 h. The morphology reconstruction mechanism was explored by combining the change of inner chain structure and material group. The results showed that the fibers treated for 12 h had better physical and chemical properties, where the diameter is evenly distributed between 500 and 800 nm. Combined with Fourier infrared analysis, the longer the cryogenic time, the more easily the water vapor and nitrogen enter polymerization reaction, causing changes of chain structure and degradation performance. With great performance of carbonization and group transformation, the PtRu/nitrogen-doped graphene composite carbon nanofibers can be used as an efficient direct alcohol fuel cell catalyst and promote its commercialization.
Highlights
Electrospinning is a new controllable preparation technology of nanofibers with strong operability and reproducibility [1]
Woo et al [3] fabricated the conductive nanofiber network on a flexible substrate via electrospinning, and the overlap between nanofibers was removed by heat treatment
Bhullar et al [4] prepared TiO2 nanofibers based on electrospinning technique, and it has variable diameters (120–450 nm)
Summary
Electrospinning is a new controllable preparation technology of nanofibers with strong operability and reproducibility [1]. Graphene is a new single-layer carbon atom material with large specific surface area as well as excellent thermal conductivity and mechanical properties [14]. It has good application prospects in various fields [15,16]. To explore a more efficient direct alcohol fuel cell catalyst and promote its commercialization, the PtRu/nitrogen-doped graphene (PtRu/NG) composite carbon nanofibers were prepared by electrospinning and heat treatment with the precursors of H2PtCl6·6H2O and RuCl3, where the polyacrylonitrile and nitrogen-doped graphene are the carbon sources. By changing the cryogenic time, the effects of cryogenic time were investigated on the microstructure of PtRu/NG composite carbon nanomaterials
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