Surface modification of carbon nanofibers with platinum nanoparticles using a “polygonal barrel-sputtering” system

Carbon nanofibers (CNFs) modified with Pt nanoparticles have been prepared using a new RF sputtering instrument called a “polygonal barrel-sputtering” system. The prepared samples were characterized by optical microscopy, field emission scanning microscopy (FE-SEM), inductively coupled plasma atomic emission spectrometry (ICP-AES), X-ray fluorescence (XRF), X-ray diffraction (XRD), and transmission electron microscopy (TEM) with energy-dispersive X-ray spectrometry (EDS). When only the CNFs were placed in the system, large CNF aggregates with sizes of 5–15 mm were observed and Pt was deposited non-uniformly. In addition, microscopic observations revealed that ca. 40% of the CNFs were still unmodified. In contrast, when pieces of bent columnar stainless steel were placed in the system with the CNFs, large CNF aggregates were not observed in the Pt deposited sample. In this sample, CNFs modified with highly dispersed Pt nanoparticles were obtained successfully, and unmodified CNFs were absent. The sizes of the Pt nanoparticles were in a narrow range of 1.7–3.5 nm, and their mean size was 2.5 nm.