Acta Phys. -Chim. Sin. ›› 2010, Vol. 26 ›› Issue (09): 2337-2342.doi: 10.3866/PKU.WHXB20100835

• ELECTROCHEMISTRY • Previous Articles     Next Articles

Electrocatalytic Oxidation of Formic Acid on Pt-Se HollowNanosphere Modified Glassy Carbon Electrodes

YAN Liang-Liang1, JIANG Qing-Ning2, LIU De-Yu2, ZHONG Yan1, WEN Fei-Peng1, DENG Xiao-Cong1, ZHONG Qi-Ling1, REN Bin2, TIAN Zhong-Qun2   

  1. 1. College of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering, Jiangxi Normal University, Nanchang 330022, P. R. China;
    2. State Key Laboratory of Physical Chemistry of Solid Surfaces, Department of Chemistry, College of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering, Xiamen University, Xiamen 361005, Fujian Province, P. R. China
  • Received:2010-03-11 Revised:2010-05-14 Published:2010-09-02
  • Contact: ZHONG Qi-Ling, REN Bin E-mail:zhqiling@163.com; bren@xmu.edu.cn
  • Supported by:

    The project was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (20663002), Foundation of State Key Laboratory of Physical Chemistry of Solid Surfaces, Xiamen University, China (200511).

Abstract:

Platinum-selenium and platinum hollow nanospheres (denoted as (Pt-Se)HN and PtHN, respectively) with different coverages of Se (θSe) (θSe=0.49, 0.39, 0.06, 0) were prepared using amorphous Se colloids as a sacrificial template. Sulfite was used to completely remove Se from the core-shell nanoparticles. The morphology and structure of the nanoparticles were characterized using various methods, which revealed a hollow structure with a very uniform size distribution and a porous structure on the shell. Assembly of Pt-Se hollownanospheres ((Pt-Se)HN) on a glassy carbon (GC) electrode produced a (Pt-Se)HN/GC electrode. The electrocatalytic activity of the electrode for the oxidation of formic acid was compared with the PtHN/GCand commercial Pt/C/GCelectrodes by cyclic voltammetry and chronoamperometry. The activity followed the order: (Pt-Se)HN/GC > PtHN/GC >Pt/C/GC. The electrooxidation of formic acid on (Pt-Se)HN/C, PtHN/C, and Pt/C catalysts follows different mechanisms: the former tends to directly oxidize formic acid to CO2 via weakly adsorbed intermediates, and the latter two via both weakly and strongly adsorbed intermediates. (Pt-Se)HN with a suitable seleniumcontent showed optimal electrocatalytic activity for the oxidation of formic acid.

Key words: Electrocatalysis, Pt-Se hollow nanosphere, (Pt-Se)HN/GC electrode, Formic acid, Oxidation