Synthesis of Reduced Graphene Oxides-Supported Binary Catalysts and Its Electrocatalytic Activity

Proton exchange membrane fuel cells (PEMFCs) have attracted wide attention beacause of their high energy efficiency and environmental freindliness.¹  Noble nanoparticles (Pt, Pd) based binary alloys nanoparticles supported on carbon black were widely used in PEMFCs. Highly dispersed Pt based nanoparticles on Vulcan carbon (VC), carbon nanotubes (CNTs),carbon fibres exhibit enhanced electrocatalytic activites in PEMFCs. Recently, graphene nanosheets have been studied extensively as catalyst supports for PEMFCs owing to its high surface area, electrical conductivity and specific thermal/chemical stability.² Graphene exhibit a unique structure of two-dimensional sp²-bonded carbon atoms with one-atom thickness and possess large surface area and higher electrical conductivity when compared to CNTs.³ But, the  efficient immobilization of Pt nanoparticles on graphene surface remains a big challenge. Additionaly, It has been reported that chemical reduction of exfoliated graphene oxide (GO) could act as effective catalyst supporter because of their oxygen-containing functional groups which act as the binding sites for Pt nanoparticles on GO surfaces.⁴Herein, we demonstrate that, a one-pot synthesis of binary alloy catalyst under alkaline conditions.

                            Figure 1 shows the pXRD pattern (A) and TEM image (B) of Pt/RGO catalyst. The peaks between 30 and 90 can be indexed to Pt crystals of face-centered cubic structure (fcc). In TEM image, the Pt NPs are showed monodispersity and homogeneity on the RGO support catalyst. The details about the synthesis,  characterization and catalytic activity of catalysts would be discussed in the presentation.

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