Nitrogen-doped porous carbon sphere supported Pt nanoparticles for methanol and ethanol electro-oxidation in alkaline media

Cuiping Zhai; Shenshen Li; Jianhong Wang; Yong Liu

doi:10.1039/c8ra07848c

Nitrogen-doped porous carbon sphere supported Pt nanoparticles for methanol and ethanol electro-oxidation in alkaline media

RSC Adv. 2018 Oct 25;8(63):36353-36359. doi: 10.1039/c8ra07848c. eCollection 2018 Oct 22.

Authors

Cuiping Zhai¹, Shenshen Li^{1

2}, Jianhong Wang¹, Yong Liu²

Affiliations

¹ Henan Engineering Laboratory of Flame-Retardant and Functional Materials, College of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering, Henan University Kaifeng 475004 PR China zhaicuiping@henu.edu.cn.
² Henan Key Laboratory of Polyoxometalate Chemistry, Henan University Kaifeng 475004 PR China liuyong79@126.com.

Abstract

A simple method for the preparation of porous nitrogen-doped carbon spheres (MNCS) with honeycomb-like structures through the self-assembly of colloidal silica by using polyaniline as the nitrogen source and a carbon precursor is reported. The BET surface area calculated from N₂ adsorption/desorption measurement of the MNCS is up to 882 m² g^-1. The synthesized MNCS were employed as a support for Pt nanoparticles for the oxidation of methanol and ethanol in alkaline media. Compared to Pt supported on commercial Vulcan XC-72R carbon (Pt/C), Pt/MNCS exhibit higher electro-catalytic performance and greater stability, indicating that MNCS have potential application prospects as electro-catalyst supports for alcohol oxidation in alkaline media. This enhancement in performance is due to the honeycomb-like porous structure of the MNCS and the doping with nitrogen.