A facile method for preparation of high performance Pt catalyst supported on multi-wall carbon nanotubes for methanol electrooxidation

Highlights: → MWCNTs are used as the electrocatalyst support. → Sodium phthalate is used as an effective cross linker between MWCNTs and Pt ions. → Pt nanoparticles are monodispersed on the surface of the MWCNTs. → The catalyst shows superior catalytic activity and stability for methanol electrooxidation. - Abstract: Due to the inherent inertness of multi-wall carbon nanotubes (MWCNTs), complicated procedures are involved in the preparation of MWCNT-supported catalysts. In this paper, a facile and effective method is introduced to prepare Pt nanoparticles dispersed on the surface of purified MWCNTs. In this method, sodium phthalate (SP) is used as a special additive to function as an effective cross linker between MWCNTs and Pt ions, and ethylene glycol (EG) aqueous solution is used as an effective solvent. Transmission electron microscopy (TEM) and X-ray diffraction (XRD) analyses reveal that the prepared face-centered cubic Pt nanoparticles with the average diameter of 2.2 nm are well dispersed on the surface of the MWCNTs. Cyclic voltammetry and chronoamperometry tests demonstrate that the Pt/MWCNTs catalyst obtained from typical experiment exhibits better catalytic activity and stability for methanol electrooxidation than the Pt catalyst supported on conventional acid-treated MWCNTs (AO-MWCNTs) and JM commercial 20% Pt/C catalyst.