Pt nanocrystals electrodeposited on reduced graphene oxide/carbon fiber paper with efficient electrocatalytic properties

Carbon fiber paper (CFP) wrapped with reduced graphene oxide (rGO) film as the composite support (rGO/CFP) of Pt catalysts was studied. It was found that rGO could affect the size and morphology of Pt nanocrystals (NCs). Concave nanocubes (CNC) Pt NCs ~ 20 nm were uniformly electrodeposited on high reduced HrGO/CFP while irregular Pt NCs ~ 62 nm were loaded on low reduced LrGO. Compared with Pt-LrGO/CFP and Pt-MrGO/CFP, the CNC Pt-HrGO/CFP exhibited a higher electrochemically active surface area (121.7 m2 g−1), as well as enhanced electrooxidation activity of methanol (499 mA mg−1) and formic acid (950 mA mg−1). The results further demonstrated that the CNC Pt-HrGO/CFP could serve as the gas diffusion electrode in fuel cells and yielded a satisfactory performance (1855 mW mg−1). The work can provide an attractive perspective on the convenient preparation of the novel gas diffusion electrode for proton exchange membrane fuel cells.