Fabrication Of Fullerene Modified Electrode And Its Electrocatalytic Application

After functionalizing, fullerenes were used as substrate material through the assembly method, with large specific surface area, good stability, and excellent in metal dispersion. Then subsequently used for preparation of modified electrode with high conductivity and large electrochemical active area, to apply in direct methanol fuel cells(DMFCs) and electrochemical biosensor.Firstly, a series of functional fullerene derivatives containing electron-withdrawing or electron-donating group were synthesized through classic Prato reaction. Cyclic voltammetry and Density Functional Theory(DFT) were utilized to investigate the relationship between substituent effect and LUMO energy level. Meanwhile, a linear correlation between the LUMO orbitals of fullerenes and the Hammett constants of substituents was established.Subsequently, before used for substrate material, C60 nanoparticles were obtained through reprecipitation and transferred onto the glassy carbon electrode by dip-attaching. Then, Platinum nanosheets were fabricated on C60 modified electrode through a simple potentiostatic deposition method, to construct nano-fullerene-decorated with nanosheet-platinum-modified electrode(denoted as Pt NSs/C60/GCE). The as-prepared modified electrode was successfully used for simultaneous determination of dopamine(DA), ascorbic acid(AA) and uric acid(UA). The synergies between nano-Pt and fullerenes brought about enhancement of the capacity of electron transfer capability and improvement of the electrocatalytic performance. The as-prepared Pt NSs/C60/GCE electrode displayed a high sensitivity, good reproducibility and storage stability.Finally, Pyridine-functionalized fulleropyrrolidine nanosheets were prepared by a fast reprecipitation method, and used as a novel nanostructured support materials to fabricate Pt catalyst nanoflakes by a simple electrodeposition approach. The as-prepared novel Pt-fullerene hybrid catalyst(Pt/PyC60) exhibits much enhanced electrocatalytic activity and stability for methanol oxidation reaction compared to the unsupported Pt nanoflakes and commercial Pt/C. The introduction of nanostructured fulleropyrrolidine as new support materials not only increases the electrochemically active surface area of catalyst, but also significantly improves the long-term stability. This will contribute to developing functionalized fullerenes as new nanostructured support materials for advanced electrocatalysts in fuel cells. In addition, the influence of fullerene derivatives with different functional groups on catalytic performance of catalysts was also discussed.