Open Conference Systems, International Conference on Electrochemical Energy and Technology

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A Surfactant-free electrochemical approach to prepare Pt nanoparticles with preferential (100) orientation and their high electrocatalytic activities for ammonia oxidation
Cheng Zhong

Last modified: 2014-10-08

Abstract


From both an energy and environmental point of view,  electro-oxidation of ammonia has received considerable  and increasing attention for various applications such as  ammonia-based low-temperature fuel cells, the production  of  high-purity hydrogen, the electrochemical decomposition  of ammonia and the fabrication of electrochemical  sensors. However, the large-scale applications of ammonia  electro-oxidation technologies have been strongly hindered  by the insufficient performance and the high cost of the  electrocatalysts related with the usage of high Pt  loadings. Since ammonia electro-oxidation is a highly  structure sensitive reaction and Pt(100) exhibits a  much higher activity toward ammonia oxidation compared  with Pt(111), extensive studies have been focused on  fabrication of preferentially (100) oriented Pt  nanoparticles. In the present work, Pt nan particles with  preferential (100) orientation was prepared by a simple  electrodeposition method without the use of any surfactants  or organic additives. The effects of the electrodeposition  parameters on the preferential orientation of the formed  Pt particles were investigated by scanning electron  microscopy (SEM), transmission electron microscopy (TEM)  and electrochemical methods. The electrocatalytic activity  of the Pt nanoparticles for ammonia oxidation was  characterized by cyclic voltammetry. The results showed  that (100) oriented Pt nanoparticles can be successfully  prepared by electrodeposition in 5mM H2PtCl6 and 0.5 M  HCl solution through controlling the depositing current  density. The fraction of the Pt (100) sites increases as  the depositing current density increases from 0.04 to  2 mA cm-2, and the preferential orientation was  confirmed by the high resolution TEM images. Furthermore,  as the Pt (100) fraction increases, the specific activity of the  Pt nanoparticles for ammonia oxidation increases obviously. 


Keywords


Platinum; Nanoparticle; Preferential orientation; 100; Ammonia oxidation; Electrocatalyst

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