Synthesis of Mesoporous Pt Films with Tunable Pore Sizes from Aqueous Surfactant Solutions

Platinum (Pt) is widely used as battery electrodes, catalysts for chemicals, and catalysts for exhaust gas decomposition in industries. Increasing need and very limited supply of rare Pt is a serious problem in the world. Here, we propose new synthetic way for reducing the use of Pt in a catalytic system by increasing the surface area and modifying the Pt surface structure. Several types of mesoporous Pt films with different pore sizes ranging from 5 to 30 nm are prepared by electrochemical plating in aqueous surfactant solutions. The mesopore walls are composed of connected Pt nanoparticles with around 3 nm in diameter. The Pt atomic crystallinity is coherently extending across over several Pt nanoparticles, showing a large number of atomic steps, which can accelerate methanol oxidation reaction. As a result of a high surface area and unique Pt surface, our mesoporous Pt film exhibits high potentiality as a superior electrocatalyst.