Preparation of the WO3/TiO2 using microwave-heating in ionic liquid and its application in electrocatalysis

A high dispersed WO₃/TiO₂ particles were prepared by using a microwave heating assisted ionic liquid method. The phase structure and morphology of WO₃/TiO₂ particles were characterized by X-ray diffraction and scanning electron microscopy. The result shows that fluffy WO₃ balls were assembled on TiO₂ and the surface structure of WO₃/TiO₂ particle was comprised of numbers of shuttle-like nanoneedles. The different WO₃/TiO₂ particles were obtained by simply changing the concentration of the ionic liquid. Then PtWO₃/TiO₂ catalysts were prepared and its electro-catalytic performances were evaluated by cyclic voltammetry and the CO stripping test. The results revealed that PtWO₃/TiO₂-1.5 catalyst had the better performance for methanol oxidation and CO tolerance which proved that the ionic liquid in this reaction system provided the multiple functions for preparing a promising catalyst for methanol oxidation.