A Comparative Investigation of the Electrocatalytic Oxidation of Methanol on Pt Modified TiO2 Nanotube Electrodes with Two Methods

In this work, it was investigated and compared that electro-catalytic oxidation of methanol in acidic medium at TiO2 nanotube (TNT) electrode modified by platinum (Pt) with two methods. Pt modified TNT electrodes were prepared by thermal decomposition (TD) and electrolytic deposition (ED). The so-prepared TD-Pt/TNT and ED-Pt/TNT electrodes were characterized by scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and X-ray diffraction (XRD). Electrochemical investigations indicate that ED-Pt/TNT has higher electro-catalytic activity and better tolerance to poisoning species in methanol oxidation than TD-Pt/TNT, which can be ascribed to the higher dispersion and stability of ED-Pt than TD-Pt on TNT electrode. The present work provides some basis for the design of high performance catalysts for direct methanol fuel cells.