Hierarchical carbon coated molybdenum dioxide nanotubes as a highly active and durable electrocatalytic support for methanol oxidation

Molybdenum dioxide (MoO₂) has been adopted as an advanced auxiliary support material for its outstanding electrical properties to anchor metal nanoparticles (NPs). To overcome the drawback of MoO₂ electronic conductivity, a novel hierarchical carbon coated molybdenum dioxide (MoO₂@C) nanotube built from ultra-thin nanosheets was utilized as a nanostructured support. Pt NPs were uniformly deposited onto the MoO₂@C support and a hierarchical Pt-based anode catalyst was successfully synthesized. Benefitting from several favourable features, including high exposed surface area, short diffusion distance, fast charge transfer and homogeneous Pt NPs dispersion, the Pt/MoO₂@C catalyst exhibited an improved activity along with enhanced stability for methanol electrooxidation when compared with that of the Pt/C catalyst. This novel hierarchical structure is helpful for the further applications in hydrogen evolution reaction, supercapacitors and batteries.