School of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering, Shanghai Jiao Tong University, No. 800 Dongchuan Rd, Minhang District, Shanghai, China.
Nanoscale. 2014;6(3):1377-83. doi: 10.1039/c3nr04663j.
High electronic conductivity of the support material and uniform distribution of the catalyst nanoparticles (NPs) are extremely desirable for electrocatalysts. In this paper, we present our recent progress on electrocatalysts for fuel cells with simultaneously improved conductivity of the supporting carbon nanofibers (CNFs) and distribution of platinum (Pt) NPs through facile incorporation of graphene nanoribbons (GNRs). Briefly, GNRs were obtained by the cutting and unzipping of multiwalled carbon nanotubes (MWCNTs) and subsequent thermal reduction and were first used as novel nanofillers in CNFs towards high performance support material for electrocatalysis. Through electrospinning and carbonization processes, GNR embedded carbon nanofibers (G-CNFs) with greatly enhanced graphitization and electronic conductivity were synthesized. Chemical deposition of Pt NPs onto G-CNFs generated a new Pt-G-CNF hybrid catalyst, with homogeneously distributed Pt NPs of ∼3 nm. Compared to Pt-CNF (Pt on pristine CNFs) and Pt-M-CNF (Pt on MWCNT embedded CNFs), Pt-G-CNF hybrids exhibit significantly improved electrochemically active surface area (ECSA), better CO tolerance for electro-oxidation of methanol and higher electrochemical stability, testifying G-CNFs are promising support materials for high performance electrocatalysts for fuel cells.
对于电催化剂而言，支撑材料的高导电性和催化剂纳米粒子（NPs）的均匀分布是极其理想的。本文介绍了我们在通过简便地掺入石墨烯纳米带（GNRs）同时提高支撑碳纤维纳米纤维（CNFs）的导电性和 Pt NPs 分布的燃料电池电催化剂方面的最新进展。简要地说，GNRs 通过多壁碳纳米管（MWCNTs）的切割和展开以及随后的热还原获得，并且首次被用作新型纳米填充物，用于高性能电催化用 CNFs 支撑材料。通过静电纺丝和碳化过程，合成了具有极大增强的石墨化和电子导电性的 GNR 嵌入碳纤维（G-CNFs）。G-CNFs 上的 Pt NPs 的化学沉积生成了一种新的 Pt-G-CNF 混合催化剂，其中均匀分布着约 3nm 的 Pt NPs。与 Pt-CNF（在原始 CNFs 上的 Pt）和 Pt-M-CNF（在嵌入 CNFs 的 MWCNT 上的 Pt）相比，Pt-G-CNF 混合催化剂表现出显著提高的电化学活性表面积（ECSA）、更好的甲醇电氧化的 CO 耐受性和更高的电化学稳定性，证明 G-CNFs 是用于高性能燃料电池电催化剂的有前途的支撑材料。
