Electrochemical formation of platinum nanoparticles by a novel rotating cathode method

Platinum nanoparticles in aqueous solution were synthesized for the first time by a novel electrochemical reduction of ionic platinum in the presence of Poly(N-vinylpyrrolidone) (PVP) which is used as a protecting agent. The utilization of a rotating cathode and the selection of a suitable protecting agent played an important role in these methods. PVP not only protects metallic particles from agglomeration but also promotes metal nucleation, which tends to produce small metal particles. Using a rotating cathode effectively solves the technological difficulty of rapidly transferring the (electrochemically synthesized) metallic nanoparticles from the cathode vicinity to the bulk solution, avoiding the occurrence of flocculates in the vicinity of the cathode, and ensuring the monodispersity of the particles. The effects of polymer stabilizer concentration, chloroplatinic acid concentration and reaction time on the particle size were studied. The platinum nanoparticles synthesized by the electrochemical method were characterized by TEM, UV-vis spectroscopy and XRD. (c) 2005 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.