Catalytic performance of Pt nanoparticles on reduced graphene oxide for methanol electro-oxidation

Abstract

We have investigated a simple approach for the deposition of platinum (Pt) nanoparticles onto surfaces of graphite oxide (GO) nanosheets with particle size in the range of 1-5 nm by ethylene glycol reduction. During Pt deposition, a majority of oxygenated functional groups on GO was removed, which resulted in a Pt/chemically converted graphene (Pt/CCG) hybrid. The electrochemically active surface areas of Pt/CCG and a comparative sample of Pt/multi-walled carbon nanotubes (Pt/MWCNT) are 36.27 and 33.43 m(2)/g, respectively. The Pt/CCG hybrid shows better tolerance to CO for electro-oxidation of methanol compared to the Pt/MWCNT catalyst. Our study demonstrates that CCG can be an alternative two-dimensional support for Pt in direct methanol fuel cells. (C) 2009 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.