Pt@Nb-TiO2 Catalyst Membranes Fabricated by Electrospinning and Atomic Layer Deposition

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A facile method was developed to fabricate fibrous membranes of niobium-doped titania-supported platinum catalysts (Pt@Nb-TiO 2 ) by a two-step approach. The process started with generating niobium-doped titania (Nb-TiO 2 ) fibrous membranes by electrospinning, followed by the deposition of Pt nanoparticles (NPs) using an atomic layer deposition (ALD) technique. The area-specific oxygen reduction reaction (ORR) activity of Pt@TiO 2 catalyst membrane was increased by ∼20 folds if 10 at.% of Nb was incorporated into the ceramic fibers. The area-specific activity also increased with the number of ALD cycles, because of the increase of the Pt loading in the catalysts. After post-treatment of the catalyst membrane at high temperature in H 2 -containing atmosphere, the ORR activity became 0.28 mA/cm 2 Pt at 0.9 V (vs RHE), because of the improvement in conductivity of Nb-TiO 2 fibers and better crystalinity of Pt NPs. The results of accelerated-stability test showed that the Pt@Nb-TiO 2 catalyst membrane was highly stable and lost only 10% of its initial activity after 30 000 potential cycles (0.6 to 1.0 V vs RHE) under a strong acidic condition.