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

Abstract

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.