Skeletal Platinum Nanostructures with High Surface Area on a Substrate by Chemical Reduction Deposition with Ammonium Carbonate

Noble metals such as platinum are excellent catalysts. Increasing the surface area of these metal catalysts is important for their practical application. We report a facile method to directly deposit skeletal platinum nanostructures through the chemical reduction of its precursor. Although porous platinum structures can be deposited on a substrate through the chemical reduction of H2PtCl6 with ethylene glycol vapor, their electrochemical surface area is 13.2m(2)g(-1), comparable to the commercial platinum black. The surface area is significantly increased by mixing (NH4)(2)CO3 into H2PtCl6 in the solid state. (NH4)(2)CO3 decomposes at relatively low temperature, giving rise to skeletal H2PtCl6. The reduction of H2PtCl6 with ethylene glycol vapor at 190 degrees C leads to the deposition of skeletal Pt nanostructures. The electrochemical surface area of the skeletal Pt nanostructures can be as high as 36.3m(2)g(-1). The electrocatalytic activity also increases significantly.