Cathodic Arc-plasma Deposition of Platinum Nanoparticles on Fluorine-doped Tin Oxide for Electrocatalytic Nitrate Reduction Reaction

For conventional electrocatalysts for the nitrate reduction reaction, Pt substrates have been used and modified with Sn adatoms to form Sn/Pt interfaces, which work as highly efficient catalytic active sites. In this work, Pt nanoparticles were deposited on fluorine-doped tin oxide (FTO) substrates by cathodic arc plasma deposition (APD) to produce Pt/Sn interfaces. As expected, APD-Pt/FTO showed the electrocatalytic nitrate reduction activity in acidic media and the Pt/Sn interfaces worked as the catalytic active site. Our interfacial design concept and synthetic approach will offer new catalyst development strategies at nanoscale. (c) The Electrochemical Society of Japan, All rights reserved.