Low-temperature plasma modified Vulcan XC72R as a support to enhance the methanol oxidation performance of Pt nanoparticles. (29th August 2022)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Sun, Hongmei; Ma, Zhongyang; Sui, Siyuan; Zhao, Yanjun; Ren, Xuemei; Ni, Guohua
• Is Part Of: International journal of hydrogen energy. Volume 47:Number 74(2022)
• Page Start: 31638
• Page End: 31646
• Publication Date: 2022-08-29
• Subjects: Carbon materials -- Surface modification and functionalization -- Low-temperature plasma; Hydrogen as fuel -- Periodicals; Hydrogène (Combustible) -- Périodiques; Hydrogen as fuel; Periodicals; 665.81
• DOI: 10.1016/j.ijhydene.2022.07.092
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 0360-3199

Abstract

Abstract: Vulcan XC72R as a kind of carbon material is widely used as a support to deposit metal catalysts. However, its low pore size, the difficulty of dispersion, and the rare sites have limited its application. In this work, we modified the surface of Vulcan XC72R by low-temperature plasma. It is detected that its original morphology and structure have been greatly changed by longtime plasma irradiation. The pore size increased and the specific surface area decreased with the increasing treatment time, while the pore volume initially increased and then decreased. Meanwhile, the outside surfaces of Vulcan XC72R were exfoliated to ultra-thin nanosheets and grafted with the oxygen-containing functional groups. Compared with the untreated Vulcan XC72R, Pt nanoparticles supported on treated Vulcan XC72R with smaller size exhibited higher catalyst activity and longer cyclic stability for the methanol oxidation reaction. This study demonstrates that plasma is an efficient approach to tuning the pore size and functionalizing the surface of Vulcan XC72R. Graphical abstract: The outside surfaces of Vulcan XC72R treated by RF-CCP were exfoliated to ultra-thin nanosheets, meanwhile the pore size and the pore volume increased. The small size (2.31 ± 0.69 nm ) of Pt nanoparticles anchored on partially exfoliated Vulcan XC72R exhibited excellent performance for methanol oxidation. Image 1 Highlights: The outside surfaces of Vulcan XC72R were exfoliated to ultra-thin nanosheets. The pore size of Vulcan XC-72R treated by plasma was twice in comparison with untreated Vulcan XC-72R. Pt nanoparticles supported on plasma-treated Vulcan XC72R displayed small size and uniform distribution.