The Open Catalysis Journal

2009, 2 : 92-95
Published online 2009 May 22. DOI: 10.2174/1876214X00902010092
Publisher ID: TOCATJ-2-92

Microwave Polyol Synthesis of Pt/C Catalyst and its Application to Hydrolysis of Sodium Borohydride

Xu Dongyan , Wang Haizhen , Dai Ping and Ye Qingguo
College of Chemical Engineering, Qingdao University of Science and Technology, Qingdao 266042, P.R. China.

ABSTRACT

XC-72 carbon supported Pt catalyst was prepared by using a microwave heated ethylene glycol method and characterized by transmission electron microscopy (TEM) and X-ray diffraction (XRD). For comparison, the same Pt/XC- 72 catalyst was also prepared by conventional heated ethylene glycol method. TEM image showed that microwave synthesized Pt nanoparticles were uniformly dispersed on the surface of carbon and had a narrow size distribution. The average particle sizes of Pt nanoparticles synthesized with microwave irradiation and conventional heating method are 2.7 and 3.7 nm, respectively. The Pt/C catalysts exhibited four diffraction peaks that are indexed to the {1 1 1}, {2 0 0}, {2 2 0}, and {3 1 1} planes of Pt. Their catalytic performances were evaluated by hydrolysis of sodium borohydride. The microwave synthesized Pt/XC-72 catalyst exhibited higher catalytic activity than that synthesized with conventional heated ethylene glycol method.

Keywords:

Catalyst, nanocomposites, ethylene glycol.