Green Synthesis of Platinum-encapsulated Nickel Nanocatalyst and Its Microstructure Evaluation
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Green Synthesis of Platinum-encapsulated Nickel Nanocatalyst and Its Nanostructure Evaluation Iliana Medina-Ramirez1, Xubin Pan2, Sajid Bashir3, and Jingbo Liu3 1
The Department of Chemistry, Universidad Aut´onoma de Aguascalientes, Av Universidad 940C P, Aguascalientes, Aguascalientes 20100, México. 2 The Department of Environmental Engineering, Texas A & M University-Kingsville, 700 University Blvd. MSC 213, Kingsville TX 78363, U.S.A. 3 The Department of Chemistry, Texas A & M University-Kingsville, 700 University Blvd. MSC 161, Kingsville TX 78363, U.S.A. ABSTRACT Platinum (Pt) is the most efficient and highly utilized electrocatalsyt; however its high cost hinders its widespread use as a stand-alone catalyst. To remedy this problem, a nickel (Ni) encapsulated by Pt (NiⓔPt) nanocatalyst was fabricated using a cost-effective green colloidal method. The NiⓔPt nanoparticles (NPs) were then characterized using transmission electron microscope (TEM) equipped with X-ray energy dispersive spectroscopy (EDS), and X-ray powder diffraction (XRD) to determine the particle size distribution, morphology, elemental composition, and crystalline phase structure. The surface energetic was also measured using ZetaPALS™ to identify the stability of the colloidal suspension. INTRODUCTION The improvement of fuel cells anode and cathode fabrication is necessary to enhance the reaction rate of both hydrogen oxidation (HOR) and oxygen reduction reaction (ORR). Platinum (Pt) based electrodes are used as catalysts in fuel cells, due to their high efficiency in HOR and ORR [1-2], however stand-alone Pt catalyst are expensive to utilize as a catalyst [3]. One approach to lower costs is to coat other metals with Pt. Nickel encapsulated by platinum (NiⓔPt) nanocatalyst(s) was prepared using the cost-effective green colloidal method to obtain higher catalytic activity [4]. This green colloidal synthetic methods offer several advantages in the design and fabrication of nanomaterials, reduced environmental impact of hazardous waste, lesser generation of hazardous waste, and greater energy efficiency [5]. A colloidal bottom-up synthesis can play a prominent role in controlling materials preparation at molecular level and in guiding the development of nanoscale materials [6]. Therefore, the catalytic activity of the nanomaterials will be significantly improved. The aim of this study was to optimize the variables of colloidal fabrication and characterize the nanostructure of the NiⓔPt nanoparticles. The activity of the NiⓔPt catalysts will be reported in a future publication. EXPERIMENT Nanosynthetic protocol: A cost and time effective colloidal method was applied to fabricate NiⓔPt NPs. A Ni colloidal suspension was produced by adding gum Arabic (2 mass % GA, to reduce aggregation
[7]) into a solution of nickel dichloride (0.05 - 0.2 M NiCl2) and deionized (25 mL, DI) water under agitation at 300 rpm through the experiment. To the Ni solution, a reducing agent was incrementally added over 30 minutes, reducing Ni2+ cation to Ni met
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