title: Very low amount of TiO2 on N-doped carbon nanotubes significantly improves oxygen reduction activity and stability of supported Pt nanoparticles.
abstract: Electrochemical corrosion is a major problem for carbon materials used in electrocatalysis. Highly dispersed TiO2 was deposited on O-functionalized and N-doped carbon nanotubes by chemical vapour deposition to tackle the carbon corrosion problem. Very low Ti loadings of about 1 wt% were applied to minimize the negative influence of TiO2 as a semiconductor on the high conductivity of carbon materials. Both N doping and TiO2 coating facilitate strong metal-support interactions and favour the formation of small Pt particles. N doping improved the intrinsic catalytic activity of the carbon support and enhanced the conductivity due to the removal of surface oxygen groups, while the negative effect of TiO2 on conductivity is counterbalanced by its promoting effect on metal-support interactions leading to enhanced overall catalytic performance. Pt/TiO2/NCNTs showed the highest ORR activity, and significantly outperformed Pt/NCNTs in electrochemical stability tests.
authors: Laboratory of Industrial Chemistry, Ruhr-University Bochum, Germany. wei.xia@techem.rub.de.
authors: Anqi
authors: A
authors: Zhao
authors: Justus
authors: J
authors: Masa
authors: Wei
authors: W
authors: Xia