COMPOSITE ELECTRODES BASED ON PLATINUMNANOPARTICLES, CARBON NANOTUBES AND NICKELMICRO-WIRE ARRAYS PRODUCED BY TEMPLATESYNTHESIS TECHNIQUE

摘要

Ion track poly-ethylene-terephthalate membranes (pore diameter 200-, 400-,1,000-nm), were employed as sacrificial templates for the preparation of micro-wirearrays by the electrodeposition of nickel. After etching of the template, the Ni micro-wire arrays were used as a scaffold for the growth of carbon nanotubes by chemicalvapour deposition. The growth of carbon nanotubes on the nickel micro-wire arrayswas found to enhance the electrochemically active surface area, redox properties inbasic solution, and catalytic activity towards the hydrogen evolution reaction. Thesubsequent deposition of Pt onto the consolidated composite carbon material byelectroless deposition enhanced the catalytic activity of the composite materials further.The significance towards applications as high surface area electrodes, especially for thehydrogen evolution reaction in water electrolysis, is also presented.