Construction of a hollow porous carbon spheres@CoP/nitrogen-doped carbon supported platinum catalyst for high performance methanol oxidation

Abstract

In this study, hollow porous carbon sphere@cobalt phosphide/nitrogen-doped carbon (HPCS@CoP/NC) was firstly prepared via a precursor conversion method and low temperature phosphidation process. Subsequently, a HPCS@CoP/NC supported Pt catalyst (Pt–HPCS@CoP/NC) was fabricated through a microwave-assisted polyol strategy. The physical characterization results show that the obtained HPCS@CoP/NC support with mesopores has a high specific surface area (379.96 m² g⁻¹). Electrochemical studies reveal that the Pt–HPCS@CoP/NC catalyst exhibits a high mass activity of 688 mA mg_Pt⁻¹ upon methanol electrooxidation, which is almost 1.7 times higher than that of commercial Pt–C (393 mA mg_Pt⁻¹). Meanwhile, the Pt–HPCS@CoP/NC catalyst exhibits better CO tolerance and cycling stability in comparison with other catalysts in this work. These excellent catalytic properties can be attributed to the enhancement effect that CoP has on Pt-based catalysts, as well as the unique nanostructure. Thereby, this study demonstrates the attractive merits of the Pt–HPCS@CoP/NC catalyst for application in methanol electrooxidation.