Synthesis of ordered mesoporous TiO₂-Carbon-CNTs nanocomposite and its efficient photoelectrocatalytic methanol oxidation performance

Exploiting novel photoelectrocatalytic system for methanol fuel cell is of huge interest. Herein, we report a composite with carbon nanotubes (CNTs) embedded in the skeleton of ordered mesoporous TiO₂-Carbon as a high-performance catalyst support for methanol oxidation under light irradiation. XRD, TEM and HR-TEM were employed to characterize the composite. Through the optimization of component proportion as well as calcination temperature, the TiO₂-Carbon-CNTs nanocomposite with the CNTs content being 3.0 wt% and calcined temperature at 700 °C exhibited the best photoelectric property. A highest photocurrent density of 0.88 mA cm⁻² on TiO₂-Carbon-CNTs is obtained, which is times higher than that of sample without CNTs. The resulting Pt/TiO₂-Carbon-CNTs films exhibit superior methanol oxidation performance. The enhanced charge transfer abilities and the synergetic effects between Pt and photointroduced holes on methanol oxidation contribute to the superior photoelectric performance.