Hybrid structure of tio₂-graphitic carbon as a support of pt nanoparticles for catalyzing oxygen reduction reaction

The durability of catalysts in fuel cells is a longstanding issue that needs to be re-solved.Catalyst stability of the fuel cell has always been a problem, studies are underway to address them. Herein, to address this issue, we synthesize a hybrid structure consisting of SP carbon (SP) as the graphitic carbon and TiO₂ as the metal oxide using a microwave method for use as a support for Pt nanoparticles. Anatase TiO₂ and Pt nanoparticles with sizes of ~5 and 3.5 ± 1.4 nm, respectively, are uniformly dispersed on a modified graphitic SP carbon support (Pt-TiO₂-SP). This supported Pt catalyst exhibits significantly improves durability in the oxygen reduction reaction (ORR). Further-more, the Pt-TiO₂-SP carbon hybrid catalyst manifests superior electrocatalytic stability and higher onset potential in ORR than those exhibited by Pt-SP carbon without TiO₂. Pt-TiO₂-SP exhibits an activity loss of less than 68 mV after 5000 electrochemical cycles, whereas an activity loss of ~100 mV is observed for Pt-SP carbon in a stability test. These results suggest that the strong metal–support interaction in TiO₂-supported Pt catalyst significantly enhances the activity of Pt nanocatalyst.