Preparation of Platinum Catalysts on Titanium Dioxide Nanotubes for CO Oxidation Reaction

Abstract

Titanium dioxide nanotubes (TNT) were prepared by hydrothermal method and were used as support materials for platinum catalysts. X-ray diffraction (XRD) analysis, Transmission electron microscopy (TEM), Brunauer-Emmett-Teller (BET) surface area analysis and Atomic absorption spectroscopy (AAS) were used to characterize the prepared samples. The results indicated that the synthesized titanium dioxide nanotubes had a large specific surface area of 288 m²/g, with an average inner diameter of 10 nm and a length range of 150-200 nm. The platinum catalysts were prepared by two methods. First, the platinum nanoparticles were impregnated on the titanium dioxide nanotubes. Second, the platinum nanoparticles were impregnated on the titanium dioxide nanoparticles before the nanotubes process. The catalytic activity of platinum catalysts was tested in the CO oxidation reaction. The 1%Pt/TNT catalyst from the first method exhibited the highest catalytic activity with light-off temperature at about 133 °C because of good dispersion of platinum nanoparticles on surface support.