Fabrication of titanium nitride nanoparticles onto carbon nanotubes by atomic layer deposition for utilization as Pt electrocatalyst supports

Because of its good stability and conductivity, titanium nitride (TiN) is considered to be a very promising alternative support for Pt catalyst; however, the preparation of TiN supports is still challenging. In this work, atomic layer deposition was facilely adopted to fabricate TiN nanoparticles onto carbon nanotubes (CNTs), and then the prepared TiN/CNTs hybrid was used as a support of Pt catalyst. The resulting TiN/CNTs-supported Pt nanoparticles (Pt@TiN/CNTs) nanocomposite showed higher catalytic activity and long-term stability toward the oxygen reduction reaction than the commercial Pt/C, which should be due to the high conductivity and high stability of TiN support, as well as the favorable Pt-TiN strong interaction.