High conductivity and surface area of Ti0.7W0.3O2 mesoporous nanostructures support for Pt toward enhanced methanol oxidation in DMFCs

For the first time, a novel Pt catalyst supported on mesoporous Ti 0.7 W 0.3 O 2 nanoparticles , which exhibited superior advantages such as high conductivity (0.022 S/cm), large specific surface area (201.481 m 2 /g) and homogeneous morphology with 9 nm spherical-like particles, was prepared successfully via the rapid microwave-assisted polyol route. It is found that uniform 3 nm spherical-like Pt nano-forms were adhered homogeneous on the surface of Ti 0.7 W 0.3 O 2 . Intriguingly, the electrochemical surface area of Pt catalyst supported on mesoporous Ti 0.7 W 0.3 O 2 was found to be around 90.05 m 2 /gPt, which is profoundly higher than ECSA value obtained from Pt/C (E-TEK) catalyst. Furthermore, as for methanol oxidation reaction measurement, the I f /I b ratio of the 20 wt % Pt/Ti 0.7 W 0.3 O 2 catalyst was found to be approximately 2.33, which 2.5-folds higher than that of the commercial Pt/C (E-TEK) catalyst. Importantly, the chronoamperometry data also revealed that the 20 wt % Pt/Ti 0.7 W 0.3 O 2 catalyst possessed the higher durability than the commercial 20 wt % Pt/C (E-TEK) catalyst. In addition, the successful synthesis of the 20 wt % Pt/Ti 0.7 W 0.3 O 2 catalyst not only offers an attractive catalyst for fuel cell using methanol but also opens application potentials for solar cells, as well as biosensors.