Ultrathin TiO2-coated MWCNTs with excellent conductivity and SMSI nature as Pt catalyst support for oxygen reduction reaction in PEMFCs

Nibret Gebeyehu Akalework(National Taiwan University of Science and Technology), Chun‐Jern Pan(National Taiwan University of Science and Technology), Wei‐Nien Su(National Taiwan University of Science and Technology), John Rick(National Taiwan University of Science and Technology), Mon‐Che Tsai(National Taiwan University of Science and Technology), Jyh‐Fu Lee(National Synchrotron Radiation Research Center), Jhih‐Min Lin(National Synchrotron Radiation Research Center), Li‐Duan Tsai(Industrial Technology Research Institute), Bing−Joe Hwang(National Taiwan University of Science and Technology)
Journal of Materials Chemistry
January 1, 2012
10.1039/c2jm34361d
Cited by 131

Abstract

The sluggish kinetics of the oxygen reduction reaction (ORR), the instability of platinum on the carbon support, and carbon corrosion are still critical issues affecting the activity and long-term durability of polymer electrolyte membrane fuel cells. An ideal solution would be to modify the catalytic supports to enhance the durability and performance of supported catalysts. Here we have synthesized multiwalled carbon nanotube (MWCNT) supported ultrathin TiO2 films (MWCNT@UT-TiO2) using a simple modified sol–gel method. Our approach takes advantage of the strong metal support interactions (SMSIs) between the MWCNT@UT-TiO2 support and platinum nanoparticles, which results in a decrease of the d-band vacancy of platinum due to electron transfer from the support, thereby enhancing the performance of the supported catalysts. Our results revealed that Pt–MWCNT@UT-TiO2 has better catalytic activity and durability compared to Pt–MWCNT and Pt–C with equivalent Pt loadings.

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