Stabilization of Embedded Pt Nanoparticles in the Novel Nanostructure Carbon Materials

An extremely durable and highly active Pt catalyst bas been successfully prepared by embedding Pt-0 nanopartides inside the pores of the nitrogervidotted porous carbon layer surrounding carbon nanotubes (Pt@NC-NT). The Pt@NC- CNT catalyst has a high BET.:urface area of 271 m(2) g(-1) (62 m(2) g(-1) for Pt/XC-72) and comparably high electrochemically active surface area of 64.3 m(2) g(-1) (68.2 m(2) g(-1) for Pt/XC-72). The prepared Pt nanoparticles are small in size 2.8 +/- 1.3 nm) and have a strorig interaction of nitrogen to platinum, as evidenced by the binding energy observed at 399.5 eV. The maximum current densities (I-epsilon) during methanol oxidation observed for Pt@NC-CNT (13.2 mA cm(-1)) is 1.2 times higher than that of Pt/XC-72 (10.8 mA cm(-1)) catalysts. Remarkably, in the long term durability test, the I-epsilon 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.