Enhanced electrocatalytic performance for methanol oxidation of Pt nanoparticles on Mn₃O₄-modified multi-walled carbon nanotubes

We report the preparation of well-dispersed Pt nanoparticles depositing on Mn₃O₄-modified multi-walled carbon nanotubes (Mn ₃O₄-MWCNTs) that can be taken as high performance catalyst in methanol electro-oxidation. Various spectrometry techniques such as FT-IR, Raman, XRD, TEM and XPS measurements were performed, revealing that the Pt nanoparticles were highly dispersed on the surface of Mn₃O ₄-modified MWCNTs with a narrow size distribution between 1.7 nm and 3.9 nm. Compared the Pt/MWCNT catalyst without Mn₃O₄ modification, the Pt/Mn₃O₄-MWCNT composite catalyst not only shows relative large electrochemical active surface area (EAS), high catalyzing activity toward methanol electro-oxidation, but also exhibits very high stability with apparent anti-poisoning tolerance to the incomplete oxidized species during methanol oxidation.