(560hm) Nitrogen-Doped Carbon: A Support to Synthesize Ultra-Small and Stable Pt-Nanoparticles

Strong electrostatic adsorption (SEA), a simple and rational approach, has been used to synthesize ultra-small, high metal loading (~20wt%) and stable Pt-nanoparticles supported on nitrogen doped carbon (NC). It is well-known that high metal dispersion accompanied by stable nanoparticles are often desired in supported metal catalysts to maximize active sites [1]. Carbon supported Pt-nanoparticles (Pt/C) is one of the examples of such highly disperse catalysts that typically form 2-4 nm particles for high metal loading (>15wt%). These catalysts are widely used in many electrochemical (i.e. oxygen reduction temperature, methanol oxidation) applications, however, activity degradation of Pt/C catalysts are still an issue [2]. Platinum metal sintering and metal oxide formation are assumed to be the causes for catalyst deactivation. This work has produced ~1.5 nm particles by SEA for 20wt% of Pt supported on NC. Additionally, particles are much stable and do not sinter even exposing at 500⁰C in inter condition. Furthermore, nitrogen atoms stabilize metallic platinum by preventing the formation of platinum oxide, which is confirmed by X-ray diffraction.

References

[1] R. Banerjee, Q. Liu, J. Meynard, and M. Tengco, Catal. Letters, vol. 147, no. 7, pp. 1754–1764, 2017.

[2] R. Banerjee, D. A. Chen, S. Karakalos, M. C. Piedboeuf, N. Job, and J. R. Regalbuto, ACS Appl. Nano Mater., vol. 1, pp. 5876–5884, 2018.