The construction of nitrogen-doped graphitized carbon–TiO2 composite to improve the electrocatalyst for methanol oxidation

• Published in: Carbon (New York) 2014-06, Vol.72, p.114-124
• Main Authors: Zhu, Jianbing, Zhao, Xiao, Xiao, Meiling, Liang, Liang, Liu, Changpeng, Liao, Jianhui, Xing, Wei
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Chemistry; Cross-disciplinary physics: materials science; rheology; Electrochemistry; Exact sciences and technology; Fullerenes and related materials; diamonds, graphite; General and physical chemistry; Kinetics and mechanism of reactions; Materials science; Physics; Specific materials
• ISSN: 0008-6223; 1873-3891
• DOI: 10.1016/j.carbon.2014.01.062

The exploration of advanced catalyst supports is a promising route to obtain electrocatalysts with high activity and durability. Herein, the nitrogen-doped graphitized carbon/TiO2 composite was fabricated and explored as support for the Pt catalyst. The composite support was constructed by carbonization of polypyrrole/TiO2 using cobalt nitrate and nickel nitrate as graphitizing catalysts. The resulting catalyst shows enhanced electrocatalytic performance for methanol electrooxidation compared with the commercial Pt/C catalyst. The enhancement can be ascribed to combinatory effect of N-doped graphitized carbon and TiO2, in which the tolerance to CO-poisoning and the intrinsic kinetics of methanol oxidation reaction were simultaneously improved by the bifunctional effect and the modification of the electronic structure. As a result, the as-developed nitrogen-doped graphitized carbon/TiO2 composite present attractive advantages for the application in fuel cell electrocatalyst.