title: High-efficiency encapsulation of Pt nanoparticles into the channel of carbon nanotubes as an enhanced electrocatalyst for methanol oxidation.
abstract: Pt-based nanostructures serving as anode catalysts for the methanol oxidation reaction (MOR) have been widely studied for many years. Nevertheless, challenging issues such as poor reaction kinetics and the short-term stability of the MOR are the main drawbacks of such catalysts and limit their applications. Herein, we have developed a facile approach to encapsulate Pt nanoparticles (NPs) inside the nanochannels of porous carbon nanotubes (CNTs; Pt-in-CNTs) as a new enhanced electrocatalytic material. The as-prepared CNTs offer simultaneously ordered diffusion channels for ions and a confinement effect for the NPs, which both facilitate the promotion of catalytic kinetics and avoid the Ostwald ripening of Pt NPs, thus leading to high activity and durable cycle life as an anode catalyst for MOR. This work provides a new approach for enhancing the stability and activity by optimizing the structure of the catalyst, and the Pt-in-CNTs represent the most durable catalysts ever reported for MOR.
authors.affiliation: College of Materials Science and Engineering, Zhengzhou University, Zhengzhou 450052 (P.R. China).
authors.forename: Jianan
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Zhang
authors.forename: Shaojun
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Guo
authors.forename: Junyi
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Wei
authors.forename: Qun
authors.initials: Q
authors.lastname: Xu
authors.forename: Wenfu
authors.initials: W
authors.lastname: Yan
authors.forename: Jianwei
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Fu
authors.forename: Shoupei
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Wang
authors.forename: Mingjing
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Cao
authors.forename: Zhimin
authors.initials: Z
authors.lastname: Chen
keywords: carbon nanotubes; electrocatalysis; fuel cells; nanoparticles; platinum