High Content Niobium in Rutile Titania as Catalyst Support to Promote Methanol Electro-Oxidation

A conductive, Nb doped TiO2 (NTO), nanocoating on carbon nanotubes (CNTs) is reported as an electrocatalyst support. Pt on this support shows an extraordinary electrocatalytic activity for methanol oxidation. The nanoscale morphology of the oxides was achieved by making it on CNTs. Nano rutile phase of NTO was successfully obtained without generating insulator phase of TiNb2O7 even at 20% doping level. Furthermore, better dispersion and smaller Pt particles were obtained on the NTO/CNTs support. Electrochemical studies showed that the Pt catalysts on the oxide support displayed much higher methanol oxidation activity and CO tolerance than those supported on bare CNTs. (C) 2014 The Electrochemical Society. All rights reserved.