Synthesis of Pt@TiO2@CNTs Hierarchical Structure Catalyst by Atomic Layer Deposition and Their Photocatalytic and Photoelectrochemical Activity

Shih-Yun Liao; Ya-Chu Yang; Sheng-Hsin Huang; Jon-Yiew Gan

doi:10.3390/nano7050097

Synthesis of Pt@TiO2@CNTs Hierarchical Structure Catalyst by Atomic Layer Deposition and Their Photocatalytic and Photoelectrochemical Activity

Nanomaterials (Basel). 2017 Apr 29;7(5):97. doi: 10.3390/nano7050097.

Authors

Shih-Yun Liao¹, Ya-Chu Yang², Sheng-Hsin Huang³, Jon-Yiew Gan⁴

Affiliations

¹ Department of Materials Science and Engineering, National Tsing Hua University, Hsinchu 300, Taiwan. syliao@livemail.tw.
² Department of Materials Science and Engineering, National Tsing Hua University, Hsinchu 300, Taiwan. yachu.y@gmail.com.
³ Department of Materials Science and Engineering, National Tsing Hua University, Hsinchu 300, Taiwan. huang.sheng.sin@gmail.com.
⁴ Department of Materials Science and Engineering, National Tsing Hua University, Hsinchu 300, Taiwan. jygan@mx.nthu.edu.tw.

Abstract

Pt@TiO2@CNTs hierarchical structures were prepared by first functionalizing carbon nanotubes (CNTs) with nitric acid at 140 °C. Coating of TiO2 particles on the CNTs at 300 °C was then conducted by atomic layer deposition (ALD). After the TiO2@CNTs structure was fabricated, Pt particles were deposited on the TiO2 surface as co-catalyst by plasma-enhanced ALD. The saturated deposition rates of TiO2 on a-CNTs were 1.5 Å/cycle and 0.4 Å/cycle for substrate-enhanced process and linear process, respectively. The saturated deposition rate of Pt on TiO2 was 0.39 Å/cycle. The photocatalytic activities of Pt@TiO2@CNTs hierarchical structures were higher than those without Pt co-catalyst. The particle size of Pt on TiO2@CNTs was a key factor to determine the efficiency of methylene blue (MB) degradation. The Pt@TiO2@CNTs of 2.41 ± 0.27 nm exhibited the best efficiency of MB degradation.

Keywords: ALD; CNT; TiO2; co-catalyst; photodegradation.