Sustainable route of synthesis platinum nanoparticles using orange peel extract

ABSTRACT

Platinum is the best catalyst to promote electrochemical reactions in fuel cell. Despite the high cost of platinum, finding a cheaper, sustainable, and environmentally to produce catalyst is needed. Green synthesis has been used to produce metal nanoparticles using reducing agents drawn from natural sources. In this study, the green synthesis of platinum nanoparticles is using orange peel extract as a bio-reducing agent. The reaction to produce platinum nanoparticles is undertaken in both acidic and alkaline media and has been employed at different selected pH values. The catalyst was physically and electrochemically characterized by X-ray diffraction (XRD), energy-dispersive X-ray (EDX), transmission electron microscope (TEM), and cyclic voltammetry. The prepared platinum nanoparticles have different distributions at different pH, while the particle size of the platinum remains in the range of 1.6–4.0 nm. The platinum nanoparticles are supported on carbon black for methanol oxidation reaction. The electrochemical analysis reveals that the methanol oxidation peak of the prepared platinum supported on carbon black is at 0.9 V (vs. RHE). The synthesized platinum nanoparticles have strong potential to be used in the methanol oxidation reaction in a DMFC, as they are well distributed, but the nanoparticles need further improvement to be applied in carbon support and alloying to reduce the amount of platinum.

KEYWORDS:

• Green synthesis
• biosynthesis
• platinum
• TEM
• bio-reducing agent

Acknowledgments

The authors gratefully acknowledge financial support for this work by Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia under Grant No. GGPM-2018-054.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia [GGPM-2018-054].