A green one-pot synthesis of Pt/TiO2/Graphene composites and its electro-photo-synergistic catalytic properties for methanol oxidation

[Display omitted] •Pt/TiO2/GNs were synthesized using ethanol as reductant under microwave irradiation.•TiO2 accelerated reduction reaction and promoted heterogeneous nucleation of Pt.•Unique Pt nanoclusters were formed around TiO2 supported on GNs.•Composites show an ultrahigh catalytic activity for MOR under UV irradiation.•Electro-photo-synergistic effect is responsible for remarkably improved catalysis. A facile and green one-pot method was used to synthesize Pt/TiO2/Graphene composites with ethanol as a reducing agent under microwave irradiation. The as-prepared composites were characterized by SEM, TEM, EDX, XPS, XRD and Raman. Electrocatalytic performance of the Pt/TiO2/GNs composites was investigated by cyclic voltammetry (CV), chronoamperometric (CA), COad stripping voltammetry and electrochemical impedance spectrum (EIS). All experimental data have revealed that TiO2 (P25) not only enhanced the reduction ability of ethanol under microwave irradiation but also promoted Pt heterogeneous nucleation to form Pt nanoclusters which are around P25 and loaded on graphene nanosheets (GNs) surface. Electrochemical experiments showed that Pt/TiO2/GNs had much higher catalytic activity and stability toward methanol oxidation reaction (MOR) and better resistance to CO poisoning compared with Pt/GNs and the commercially available Johnson Matthey 20% Pt/C catalyst (Pt/C-JM). Especially under UV irradiation with 20min, Pt/TiO2/GNs composites showed an ultrahigh forward peak current density of 1354mAmg−1, nearly 2.5 times higher than that of Pt/C-JM, which indicated that the electrocatalytic and photocatalytic properties of Pt/TiO2/GNs had been integrated to boost the catalytic performance for MOR.