Pt nanoparticles anchored on Nb2O5 and carbon fibers as an enhanced performance catalyst for methanol oxidation

In this work, Nb2O5 and carbon composite nanofibers (Nb2O5/C) was prepared by a facile electrospinning method, and was employed as the electrochemical support of Pt nanoparticles for methanol oxidation reaction. The obtained Nb2O5/C and Pt/Nb2O5/C was characterized by a series of materials characterization technical including X-ray diffraction (XRD), scan and transmission electron microscopies (SEM and TEM) and X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS). XRD results showed that Nb2O5 in Nb2O5/C exhibited a smaller lattice constant compared with pure Nb2O5, indicating that Nb2O5 in Nb2O5/C composite nanofibers was partially reduced. The TEM images showed that the nano Pt particles with an average size of 3 nm was uniformly deposited on Nb2O5/C nanofiber support. The enhanced electrochemical performance toward MOR could be ascribed to the enhanced electrical conductivity of nano Nb2O5/C nanofibers and the strong connection between Pt and Nb2O5/C support, which can weak the binding energy between Pt and CO-intermediate and providing the rich active OH species on Nb2O5/C support.