Well-dispersed Pt nanoparticles on polydopamine-coated ordered mesoporous carbons and their electrocatalytic application

Polydopamine (PDA)-coated ordered mesoporous carbons (OMCs) are easily prepared through one-step self-polymerization of dopamine on OMCs matrix at room temperature. Pt nanoparticles (NPs) are deposited on OMCs-PDA via a simple chemical reduction. The PDA layer helps to improve the water-solubility and dispersibility of OMCs, and plays a key role in the deposition of uniform and well-distributed Pt NPs. Transmission electron microscopy images reveal that the ultra-fine Pt NPs with an average size of ~1.8 nm are well-dispersed on the surface of OMCs-PDA. The electrocatalytic behavior of OMCs-PDA/Pt modified glassy carbon (GC) electrode is investigated by cyclic voltammetry and current–time methods using hydrogen peroxide (H2O2) and hydrazine (N2H4) as redox probes. Results show that OMCs-PDA/Pt exhibits improved electrocatalytic activity towards H2O2 reduction and N2H4 oxidation compared with OMCs/Pt. The linear electro-redox responses are found for H2O2 and N2H4 in the range of 2–14324 μM and 1–229 μM with the detection limit (S/N=3) of 0.85 μM and 0.51 μM, respectively. In addition, this new nanocomposite modified electrode exhibits high sensitivity, good anti-interference ability, excellent reproducibility and long-term stability.