| Catalytic Pt black is not a self-supporting material and generally has to be impregnated onto surfaces. This thesis work demonstrates pulse plating methods for growing cohesive catalytic platinum onto two different substrates; carbon nanotube paper (porous with large surface area) and shape memory alloy wire (compact with small surface area). A bipolar pulse plating method (from diammineplatinum (II) nitrite, (NH3)2 Pt (NO2) 2, ammoniacal solution) was introduced to decorate carbon nanotubes with Pt after they were pressed into a bucky paper; uniformly dispersed 2 nm Pt particles were electrodeposited into the paper with no surface buildup and up to 35 wt. % total Pt loading. A new approach was used to create high surface area Pt on the shape memory wire: the inclusion of colloidal Pt in a Pt electrodeposit, under sonication, from a suspension of colloidal Pt in hexachoroplatinic acid (IV), H2PtCl6, solution yielded catalytic Pt with an electroactive surface area of 40000 muC/cm2 and a specific capacitance of 21 F/g without impeding the shape memory mechanism. |
