Structural and electrochemical investigations of nanostructured NiTiO₃ in acidic environment

Abstract

Electrochemically stable nanostructured nickel titanate (NiTiO₃) was prepared by sol−gel method and the structural and electrochemical properties were studied in the presence of H₂SO₄ + CH₃OH electrolyte. XRD and Raman studies confirmed the single phase of NiTiO₃ with the rhombohedral structure. Thermal stability was studied by TGA. Microstructure analysis by SEM confirmed the uniformly distributed spherical shaped NiTiO₃ particles, and TEM studies showed the spherical shaped particles with an average size of 90 nm. The UV-Vis analysis shows the absorption spectrum of NiTiO₃, while the FTIR spectrum showed the vibrations related to Ni−O and Ti−O stretching. Electrochemical tests were carried out by cyclic voltammetry (CV) and polarization studies. The CV measurements were made at room temperature as well as at 60°C: at room temperature, the NiTiO₃ did not show any activity towards methanol oxidation whereas there observed an activity at the potential of 0.69 V at the operating temperature of 60°C. The ilmenite structured NiTiO₃ has oxygen vacancies, most probably on the surface, which could have also contributed to the methanol oxidation. Thus the nanostructured NiTiO₃ is proposed to be an active support material for metal electrocatalysts.

Keywords

electrocatalyst / methanol oxidation / electrochemical / nanomaterials / NiTiO₃

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Acknowledgement

Financial support from DST-SERB, India (SR/FTP/PS-137/2010) to carry out this work is gratefully acknowledged. The CIF of Pondicherry University is also acknowledged.

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