Simple Synthesis of Platinum Nanoparticles by Plasma Sputtering in Water

Abstract

We applied a novel method of plasma sputtering in water for simple and fast preparation of carbon-supported platinum nanoparticles at atmospheric pressure from platinum wire electrodes without using any stabilizers, chemical reductant, plasma-generating gas, or salt solution in an open system. Upon plasma sputtering, special waveforms of voltage and current were obtained using a pulsed power supply. The obtained emission spectra clarified that platinum atoms were formed in the plasma region from the electrode surface owing to bombardment of the surface by highly energetic electrons and radicals derived from plasma. Thus, carbon-supported 2 nm and highly dispersed platinum nanoparticles were successfully synthesized by this fast and simple plasma sputtering method. Highly crystallized platinum nanoparticles show good electrocatalytic activity. This plasma sputtering technique has shown a potential application to the synthesis of other metal nanoparticles.