Carbon monoxide and methanoloxidation at platinum catalysts supported on ordered mesoporous carbon: the influence of functionalization of the support

The influence of different functionalization treatments of the support on the electrocatalytic activity towards CO and methanol oxidation at platinum nanoparticles deposited on ordered mesoporous carbons (OMC) has been studied for the first time. Before deposition of the metal, the carbon support was functionalized applying several procedures, with the purpose to generate oxygenated groups for anchoring the Pt nanoparticles by the formic acid (FM) and borohydride (BM) reduction methods. Good dispersion of the catalyst was obtained in all cases. It has been shown that particle size, and consequently the lattice parameter and metal surface area, depends on the functionalization treatment employed. CO and methanol electrooxidation was studied at all prepared catalysts applying cyclic voltammetry. It was observed that CO stripping occurs at more negative potentials (around 0.10–0.15 V) with these supports with respect to Vulcan XC-72 supported catalysts, and the best results for both methods were achieved with OMC functionalized with concentrated nitric acid for 0.5 h. This carbon support presents a higher amount of oxygenated groups without the loss of the ordered structure. In situ infrared studies have been performed for the first time with this type of catalyst, showing that the effect of the carbon support on the CO oxidation potential is similar to the presence of a second metal as Ru under the same experimental conditions. Methanol electrooxidation is also dependent on the nature of the support, as proved from both cyclic voltammetry and chronoamperometry. In this case, results depend on the method of nanoparticles preparation and seem to be better for BM.