Photoinduced Synthesis of Ultrafine Pt Nanoparticles Under C60 Spatial Confinement: Application to Methanol Oxidation and Nitrophenol Reduction

C60 has a spatial confinement effect as a carrier for Pt nanoparticles. In this paper, highly dispersed and uniformly sized ultrafine Pt nanoparticles (Pt/C60-A) were synthesized by a photoinduced method using green ascorbic acid as an auxiliary reducing agent in the presence of C60 space-confined. It was found that the morphology of Pt nanoparticles could be modulated by adjusting the wavelength of light (395 nm UV and 450 nm blue-violet, 650 nm red). Changing the concentration of the auxiliary reducing agent regulated the Pt nanoparticle loading and dispersion. In addition, an electron-rich surface is formed on the surface of Pt nanoparticles synthesized under strong metal-support interaction (SMSI). In the methanol oxidation reaction, the catalyst (Pt/C60-A3) prepared by 3 mL of 180 mM reductant, synergistically irradiated with blue-violet light (450 nm), showed catalytic activity and durability that were significantly better than those of commercial Pt/C catalysts. The catalytic performance of Pt/C60-A3 was unchanged before and after the durability test and showed high durability. In addition, Pt/C60-A3 also exhibits high catalytic activity and durability in the reduction of p-nitrophenol (4-NP), with an apparent rate constant (k) of up to 0.54 min-1, and the catalytic activity is still maintained at about 87% after seven cycles of the 4-NP reaction. This study provides a new insight and method for synthesizing and applying noble metal nanoparticles.