Research on preparation of high activity and durable carbon-supported platinum catalyst for methanol electro-oxidation by a facile continuous microwave pipeline method

In methanol oxidation reaction (MOR), it is crucial for the catalyst that Pt particles uniformly cover the surface of the carrier and the Pt surface active sites can effectively remove the binding with CO. This article develops a simple and effective continuous microwave technology. Carbon loaded nano platinum was synthesized by rapidly and uniformly heating a ethylene glycol mixture containing carbon black (CB) H2PtCl6 using microwave radiation, with a Pt content of 49.5%. The experimental results indicate that platinum particles are uniformly loaded onto the carbon surface, with uniform shape and size, and an average particle size of 3.02 nm. And the Pt/C catalyst prepared by continuous microwave technology showed enhanced electrocatalytic activity (peak current density of 76.95 mA/cm2) in MOR after heating at appropriate temperature in N2 atmosphere, which exceeded the commercial catalyst TKK (47.07 mA/cm2) by 63.6%. And the catalyst's resistance to CO toxicity and durability; Higher than commercial Pt/C catalysts. Compared with traditional methods, continuous microwave technology exhibits higher energy utilization efficiency and faster reaction speed in the catalyst preparation process. This technology also has the ability to achieve continuous preparation, which is one of the effective technological approaches to achieve large-scale catalysts production.