Carbon supports for dispersed platinum (Pt) electrocatalysts in direct methanol fuel cells (DMFCs) are being continuously developed to improve electrochemical performance and catalyst stability. However, carbon supports still require solutions to reduce costs and improve catalyst efficiency. In this study, we prepare well-dispersed Pt electrocatalysts by introducing titanium dioxide (TiO2) into biomass based nitrogen-doped carbon supports. In order to obtain optimized electrochemical performance, different amounts of TiO2 component are controlled by three types (Pt/TNC-2 wt%, Pt/TNC-4 wt%, and Pt/TNC-6 wt%). Especially, the anodic current density of Pt/TNC-4 wt% is 707.0 mA g−1 pt, which is about 1.65 times higher than that of commercial Pt/C (429.1 mA g−1 pt); Pt/TNC-4wt% also exhibits excellent catalytic stability, with a retention rate of 91 %. This novel support provides electrochemical performance improvement including several advantages of improved anodic current density and catalyst stability due to the well-dispersed Pt nanoparticles on the support by the introduction of TiO2 component and nitrogen doping in carbon. Therefore, Pt/TNC-4 wt% may be electrocatalyst a promising catalyst as an anode for high-performance DMFCs.

In this study, flat-type photocatalytic reaction system is applied to reduce toxic hexavalent chromium (Cr(VI)) to trivalent chromium (Cr(III)) in aqueous solution under UV irradiation. To overcome the limitation of conventional photocatalysis, a novel approach toward photocatalytic system for reduction of hexavalent chromium including nanotubular TiO2 (NTT) on two kinds of titanium substrates (foil and mesh) were established. In addition, modified Ti substrates were prepared by bending treatment to increase reaction efficiency of Cr(VI) in the flat-type photocatalytic reactor. For the fabrication of NTT on Ti substrates, Ti foil and mesh was anodized with mixed electrolytes (NH4F-H2O-C2H6O2) and then annealed in ambient oxygen. The prepared NTT arrays were uniformly grown on two Ti substrates and surface property measurements were performed through SEM and XRD. Hydraulic retention time(HRT) and substrate type were significantly affected the Cr(VI) reduction. Hence, the photocatalytic Cr(VI) reduction was observed to be highest up to 95% at bended(modified) Ti mesh and lowest HRT. Especially, Ti mesh was more effective as NTT substrate in this research.