Thermal decomposition behaviors of PVP coated on platinum nanoparticles

Abstract TG‐DTA, TEM, and IR were used to investigate the thermal decomposition behavior of poly( N ‐vinyl‐2‐pyrrolidone) (PVP). The TG‐DTA results show that the thermal decomposition behavior of PVP on platinum (Pt) is quite different from that of pure PVP. For pure PVP, 95.25% is decomposed when the temperature is increased up to 500°C; while under the same experimental condition, PVP coated on the Pt nanoparticles is only 66.7% decomposed. This is further supported by IR measurement. TEM results exhibited that the partially decomposed PVP still plays a role in stabilizing Pt nanoparticles: after heating treatment at 500°C for half an hour, the platinum nanoparticles did not aggregate heavily. © 2005 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Appl Polym Sci 99: 23–26, 2006