**Acknowledgements**

*Nanocatalysts*

**18**

CNDs-TiO2 composite support.

**4. Conclusion**

**Figure 6.**

**Figure 5.**

*Copyright 2018, Elsevier.*

in acidic media. Observed results proved that blending carbon nanodots with TiO2 not only improves the electroactivity of the nanocatalyst but also enhances the tolerance to poisoning and resistance to corrosion. **Figure 6** shows the durability curves for the Pt/

*Stability curves for the Pt/CNDs-TiO2 nanocatalyst. Reproduced with permission from Gwebu et al. [86].* 

*Pt 4f XPS spectra for Pt/CNDs-TiO2. Reproduced with permission from Gwebu et al. [86]. Copyright 2018, Elsevier.*

After exposure to 50 cycles, the Pt/CNDs-TiO2 nanocatalyst retained the highest current indicating great tolerance to poisoning and resistance to acidic conditions of the fuel cell. The improved resistance to poisoning and corrosion was credited to the presence of ceramic TiO2 nanoparticles which promote the oxidation of poisoning species at the same time minimising the detachment of Pt nanoparticles from the

In this chapter, the use of carbon nanodots as primary support materials for direct fuel cell nanocatalysts is discussed. Other carbon nanomaterials such as

CNDs-TiO2 nanocatalyst against Pt/CNDs and Pt/C nanocatalysts.

This work is based on the research supported wholly/in part by the National Research Foundation of South Africa (Grant Numbers: 112812 and TTK-15071-0125- 019). The authors also thank the University of Johannesburg, Faculty of Science, University Research Council for the financial support.

#### **Conflict of interest**

No conflicts of interest are declared by the authors.

### **Author details**

Sandile Surprise Gwebu, Philiswa N. Nomngongo and Nobanathi W. Maxakato\* Department of Applied Chemistry, University of Johannesburg, Doornfontein, South Africa

\*Address all correspondence to: nmaxakato@uj.ac.za

© 2019 The Author(s). Licensee IntechOpen. This chapter is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/ by/3.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
