Pt/MnO2/carbon nanotube (CNT) and PtRu/MnO2/CNT nanocomposites were synthesized by successively loading hydrousMnO2 and Pt (or PtRu alloy) nanoparticles on CNTs and were used as anodic catalysts for direct methanol fuel cells (DMFCs). The existence of MnO2 on the surface of CNTs effectively increases the proton conductivity of the catalyst, which then could remarkably improve the performance of the catalyst in methanol electro-oxidation. As a result, Pt/MnO2/CNTs show higher electrochemical active surface area and better methanol electro-oxidation activity, compared with Pt/CNTs. As PtRu alloy nanoparticles were deposited on the surface of MnO2/CNTs instead of Pt, the PtRu/MnO2/CNT catalyst shows not only excellent electro-oxidation activity to methanol with forward anodic peak current density of 901 A/gPt but also good CO oxidation ability with lower preadsorbed CO oxidation onset potential (0.33 V vs Ag/AgCl) and peak potential (0.49 V vs Ag/AgCl) at room temperature.

NaxBayBiO3·nH2O (NBBO) has been prepared using a commercial NaBiO3·nH2O (NBO) as a starting material with a hydrothermal iron-exchange reaction. As-synthesized samples were characterized by means of X-ray diffraction (XRD), scanning electron microscopy (SEM), ultraviolet–visible light (UV–vis) absorbance spectra, thermogravimetry-differential scanning calorimetry (TG-DSC) and X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) techniques. The photooxidation decomposition of phenol over NBBO has been carried out under visible-light irradiation (λ> 400 nm). The result revealed that the NBBO showed considerable photooxidation activity for phenol degradation in the range of visible light. The result of reusability indicated the structure of NBBO was instable, which was changed to Bi2O2CO3 in the photooxidation process, although photooxidation activity kept high in three runs. This study has provided useful information for the development of new bismuthate photocatalyst with higher photoactivity under visible-light irradiation.

The activity of RuO2 xH2O/CNT for benzyl alcohol oxidation can be predicted by the specific capacitance (SC) of RuO2, suggesting that highly active RuO2 nanocatalysts are also good supercapacitor materials with SC high up to 1500 F gRuO2 1.

Pt/CNTs, PtRu/CNTs, Pt/RuO2/CNTs and RuO2/Pt/CNTs were prepared to understand the role of RuO2 in anodic catalyst of direct methanol fuel cell (DMFC). The results show that the presence of Ru, no matter in alloy or in oxide, can improve the CO electrooxidation ability. RuO2 in Pt-Ru binary catalyst, which situates between CNTs and Pt particles, can exert its CO electrooxidation ability best. Another role of RuO2 in Pt-Ru binary catalyst is to promote Pt nanoparticles to disperse uniformly on CNTs to obtain larger EAS, resulting in higher activity of methanol electrocatalytic oxidation.

Both substitutional and interstitial nitrogen-doped titanium dioxides (N-TiO2) were prepared. Their surface states were clarified by XPS spectra of N 1s, O 1s and Ti 2p. The results of photocatalysis show that both substitutional and interstitial N impurities greatly enhance the photoactivity of TiO2 in visible light. Moreover, the visible light activity of interstitial N-doped TiO2 is higher than that of substitutional N-doped TiO2. The microwave synthesis presented in this paper is a promising and practical method to produce interstitial nitrogen-doped photocatalysts with high visible light activity.