Synthesis of carbon-supported PtM/C catalysts (M ) Co, Cr, or Fe) using a new preparation technique, a reverse micelle method, is reported. The catalysts were characterized by different surface techniques: X-ray diffraction, scanning electron microscope, transmission electron microscope, and energy dispersive X-ray microanalysis. Surface characterization showed that Pt/M nanoparticles on catalysts were synthesized using the reverse micelle method. Pt/M nanoparticles were observed to be uniform spherical objects. The performance of the PtM/C catalysts was tested by the rotating disk electrode technique.

A facile solvent evaporation induced self-assembly (SEISA) strategy was developed to synthesize mesoporous N-doped anatase TiO 2 (SE-meso-TON) using a single organic complex precursor derived in situ from titanium butoxide and ethylenediamine in ethanol solution. After the evaporation of ethanol in a fume hood and subsequent calcinations at 450 C, the obtained N-doped TiO 2 (meso-TON)anatase was of finite crystallite size, developed porosity, large surface area (101 m 2 g À1) and extended light absorption in the visible region. This SE-meso-TON also showed superior photocatalytic activity to the SG-meso-TON anatase prepared via sol-gel synthesis. On the basis of characterization results from XRD, XPS, N 2 adsorption-desorption and ESR, the enhanced visible-light-responsive photocatalytic activity of SE-meso-TON was assigned to its developed mesoporosity and reduced oxygen vacancies. IntroductionMotivated by the discovery of the excellent visible-lightresponse of nitrogen-doped TiO 2 (TiO 2Àx N x , hereaer, TON),various nonmetal dopants (e.g. N, C, S, P, and halogen elements) have been extensively attempted to be doped or codoped into the TiO 2 matrix for narrowing its wide bandgap ($3.2 eV) and thus harvesting visible light. 3 Among those doped TiO 2 materials, TON is more desirable due to its low energy requirement for doping and superb performance in photovoltaic and photocatalytic applications.2,4-7 In practice, the mesoporous TON (meso-TON) is plausible because its large specic surface area (SSA) and developed porosity favour solar energy conversion. 4,8 Despite the fact that enormous advances have been achieved in the control of N-doping level, morphology, crystallite size and crystallinity of TiO 2Àx N x , 9-11 synthesis of mesoporous TiO 2Àx N x (meso-TON) remains a great challenge because the mesoporous structure is prone to collapse during nitriding and crystallization at elevated temperature. 8,12-14Ammonolysis is the most used nitriding technique for preparation of TON, though it occurs above 500 C. 2,10,13 Such a high ammonolysis temperature inevitably destructs the porosity of the primitive meso-TiO 2 , induces phase transition and hampers its applications in thin lm devices.2,10 In order to retain its developed porosity, a few low-temperature methodologies, such as sol-gel, 9 hydrothermal or solvothermal combined with post-nitriding, 10,11 have been developed for preparing meso-TON. In those methodologies, the involved solvent, surfactant template and chemical sources of Ti and N controlled the hydrolysis, nitriding and crystallization processes and thus determined the mesoporosity of the resultant TON. 15,16 In particular, the alternative nitrogen sources to NH 3 , such as NH 4 Cl, 13 urea, 15,17,18 HMT, 19 glycine 16 and thiourea, 20 are plausible for realizing low-temperature nitriding. Solvent evaporation induced assembly (SEISA) has been demonstrated to be an excellent route to prepare meso-TiO 2 thin lms, 12 in terms of its great exibility in handling the synthesis system (solvents, su...

No abstract