Uniform Pt Nanoparticles Incorporated into Reduced Graphene Oxides with MoO3 as Advanced Anode Catalysts for Methanol Electro-oxidation

Pt nanoparticles (NPs) were uniformly deposited on the reduced graphene oxides (RGOs) by one-pot thermoreduction strategy with assist of MoO3. MoO3 can significantly reduce the size of Pt NPs on RGOs. These Pt NPs can be averaged to be 3.0 to 4.1 nm with MoO3 loading from 27.4 to 8.8%. Without MoO3, the size of Pt NPs can reach up to 15.2 nm. In addition, MoO3 in Pt-MoO3/RGO catalysts conducts a surface-confined reversible electron transfer. And the Pt-MoO3/RGO catalysts show strong resistance to CO poisoning and high activity towards methanol oxidation reaction (MOR). Among these Pt-based catalysts, Pt-MoO3/RGO catalysts with 16.5% MoO3 loading possess a largest MOR current up to 610 mA mg−1 Pt with a smallest deteriorate rate of 0.000425 s−1 polarizing for 5000 s at 0.65 V. These results demonstrate commercial feasibility for Pt catalysts to reduce significantly the amount of precious metals Pt in parallel to maintain a high MOR activity and CO tolerance.