Design of Experiments Methodology to Investigate Methanol Electrooxidation on Pt Nanoparticles Supported Novel Functionalized Reduced Graphene Oxide

Here, graphene oxide is synthesized and functionalized with methyl viologen and chitosan to be used as a novel catalyst support for Pt nanoparticles. The particle size and distribution of Pt nanoparticles are characterized by transmission electron microscope images. Pt nanoparticles with the mean particle size of 3.62 nm are dispersed on the support very uniformly. The catalytic activity of the prepared catalyst is investigated for methanol oxidation by cyclic voltammetry technique. The prepared catalyst showed very good catalytic activity for methanol oxidation. The experimental and statistical analyses are used to investigate the effect of mutual interaction between temperature and methanol concentration on anodic current density of methanol oxidation. The statistical analysis results reveals that the influence of temperature and methanol concentration as main factors and their reciprocal interactions are significant at α=0.05. Meanwhile, the results confirm that the response increases with both main factors. The enhancement of the anodic current density of methanol oxidation with temperature and methanol concentration is equal to 530.22% and 184.89%, respectively. Therefore, the effect of temperature on the response is higher than that of methanol concentration.