Preparation and Investigations on Platinum Catalysts Supported on Self-assembled Films of Gold Nanoclusters

Special attention was focused Pt-based and Pd-based metallic catalysts because of their broad industrial applications such as fuel cells, they had themselves merit. However, the high cost of platinum catalysts, slow reaction kinetics, poor selectivity, and catalyst poisoning have so far precluded the widespread use of fuel cells. Pt-based bimetallic catalysts may enhance catalytic activity, as compared to monometallic catalysts. This work demonstrated the use of self-assembled gold nanoclusters films for loading platinum catalysts. The self-assembled gold nanoclusters films were prepared based on the electrostatic interactions between the terminated cationic groups attached on the gold nanoclusters surfaces and the negatively charged polyelectrolyte binding layer and used to confine the growth of platinum metal catalyst by electrodeposition. The result revealed that the electrodeposited Pt was greatly accelerated by the underlying self-assembled gold nanoclusters films, and the activity towards oxidation of formic acid was dramatically increased compared with those of Pt electrode posited on the surfaces of bare as well as the electrode covered with polymer binding layers. Present study provides a simply controlled test-bed for fundamental study on using self-assembled gold nanoclusters films as a support for catalysis.