High Loading Pt Core/Carbon Shell Derived from Platinum-Aniline Complex for Direct Methanol Fuel Cell Application

A novel approach to high loaded Pt core/carbon shell catalyst synthesis from a Pt-aniline complex was reported. The Pt-aniline complex was successfully synthesized by irradiating an ultrasound to the hexachloro platinic acid and aniline monomer mixture. The highly viscous nature of aniline leads to reproducible hexagonal plate like Pt-aniline complex crystals. The chemical composition of the Pt-aniline complex was identified as [PtCl2(C6H5NH2)(2)] with the help of NMR, XPS, HR ESI-MS, and TGA analyses. Furthermore, the Pt-aniline hexagonal plates were sintered at various temperatures like 400 degrees C, 500 degrees C, and 700 degrees C for an hour. This formed the highly dispersed carbon covered Pt nano particles with loading of 80.1wt %, 81.3wt %, and 83.4wt % for HP-4, HP-5, and HP-7, respectively. After supporting it on Vulcan XC-72, Pt core/carbon shell pyrolyzed at a low temperature showed excellent performance in methanol oxidation reaction. In addition, Pt core/carbon shell prepared at a high temperature revealed excellent tolerance to methanol.