Stabilization of embedded pt nanoparticles in the novel nanostructure carbon materials

An extremely durable and highly active Pt catalyst has been successfully prepared by embedding Pt ⁰ nanoparticles inside the pores of the nitrogen-dotted porous carbon layer surrounding carbon nanotubes (Pt@NC-CNT). The Pt@NCCNT catalyst has a high BET surface area of 271 m ² g ^-1 (62 m ² g ^-1 for Pt/XC-72) and comparably high electrochemically active surface area of 64.3m ² g ^-1 (68.2m ² g ^-1 for Pt/XC-72). The prepared Pt nanoparticles are small in size (2.8 ( 1.3 nm) and have a strong interaction of nitrogen to platinum, as evidenced by the binding energy observed at 399.5 eV. The maximum current densities (If) during methanol oxidation observed for Pt@NC-CNT (13.2 mA cm ^-1) is 1.2 times higher than that of Pt/XC-72 (10.8mA cm ^-1) catalysts. Remarkably, in the long term durability test, the If after 1000 cycles for Pt@NC-CNT decreased to 10.6 mA cm-1 compared with Pt/XC-72, which decreased to 2.6 mA cm ^-2. This means that the Pt@NC-CNT catalyst has a tremendously stable electrocatalytic activity for MOR because of the unique structure of Pt@NC-CNT formed in this novel synthesis technique.