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Polymer Chemistry 2018
Polymer Sciences
ISSN: 2471-9935
Page 28
March 26-28, 2018
Vienna, Austria
3
rd
Edition of International Conference and Exhibition on
Polymer Chemistry
C
arbon nanotubes (CNTs) have attracted great interest as
catalyst supports due to their unique properties, including
excellent electronic conductivity, large surface area and high
chemical stability. However, pristine CNTs are chemically
inert and can’t readily disperse in organic solvents or aqueous
solutions, which would be disadvantageous for the assembly
and dispersion of catalytic nanoparticles. It is necessary
to functionalize CNTs in order to improve their surface
properties and dispersions in solvents. We have reported the
functionalization of CNTs with conducting polymers such as
poly(3,4-ethylenedioxythiophene) (PEDOT) and polyindole
(PIn) and used these nanocomposites as the support materials
of Pt nanoparticles. It is found that the conducting polymer
functionalization of CNTs not only remarkably enhanced the
solubility of CNTs but also introduced homogeneous surface
functional groups on the CNT surface. The conducting polymer
functionalized CNTs supported Pt nanocatalysts, exhibit
much higher electrocatalytic activity and stability than the Pt/
CNTs and commercial Pt/C catalysts for methanol oxidation.
Moreover, we have developed a novel strategy for the synthesis
of sulfur-doped or sulphur and nitrogen co-doped CNTs as the
highly efficient Pt-based catalyst support toward methanol
oxidation. The doped CNTs were obtained by annealing
PEDOT or PEDOT-based copolymer functionalized CNTs.
The results indicate that the doped CNTs could significantly
improve the dispersion of supported Pt nanoparticles and
increase the electrochemically active surface area. The doped
CNTs supported Pt-based catalysts exhibit much higher
electrocatalytic activity, long-term durability and CO-tolerance
ability for the methanol oxidation reaction compared to the
undoped CNT supported Pt and commercial Pt/C catalysts.
Recent Publications:
1. J J Fan, Y J Fan, R X Wang, S Xiang, H G Tang,
et al.
(2017) A novel strategy for the synthesis of sulfur-
doped carbon nanotubes as a highly efficient Pt
catalyst support toward the methanol oxidation
reaction. J. Mater. Chem. A 5:19467–19475.
2. R X Wang, Y J Fan, L Wang, L N Wu, S N Sun,
et al.
(2015) Pt nanocatalysts on polyindole functionalized
carbon nanotubes composite with high performance
for methanol electrooxidation. J. Power Sources
287:341–348.
3. L Wei, Y J Fan, J H Ma, L H Tao, R X Wang,
et al.
(2013)
Highly dispersed Pt nanoparticles supported on
manganese oxide-poly(3,4-ethylenedioxythiophene)-
carbon nanotubes composite for enhanced methanol
electrooxidation. J. Power Sources 238: 157–164.
Biography
You-Jun Fan is a Professor of Physical Chemistry at the Guangxi Key Labo-
ratory of Low Carbon Energy Materials, College of Chemistry and Pharma-
ceutical Sciences, Guangxi Normal University, China. He received his MSc
Degree in 2001 from China University of Geosciences, and his PhD in 2005
from Xiamen University. He was a Post-doctoral Fellow at the Research In-
stitute of Electronics, Shizuoka University, Japan (2005–2007). His current
research interests include electrocatalysis, electrochemical energy conver-
sion and storage, and electrochemical biosensor. He has published more
than 60 research papers, in journals including
J. Mater. Chem. A, Nanoscale,
J. Phys. Chem. C, J. Power Sources, Electrochem. Commun., Electrochim.
Acta, Dalton Trans., Microchim. Acta, Mol. Catal., Int. J. Hydrogen Energy, RSC
Adv.,
etc. He has obtained 8 innovation patents, and contributed to 2 scientif-
ic books. His research interests are electrocatalysis, electrochemical energy
conversion and storage, and electrochemical biosensor.
youjunfan@mailbox.gxnu.edu.cnFabrication of CNT-based conducting polymer nanocomposites
and their applications in direct methanol fuel cells
You-Jun Fan
Guangxi Normal University, China
You-Jun Fan, Polym Sci, Volume 4
DOI: 10.4172/2471-9935-C1-008