Pt35Cu65 nanoarchitecture: A highly durable and effective electrocatalyst towards methanol oxidation

Yuan Zhang, Tingting Han, Lilian Zhu, Jianhui Fang, Gang Wang, Jiaqiang Xu, Pengcheng Xu, Xinxin Li, Chung Chiun Liu

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

9 Scopus citations

Abstract

Aiming at electro-catalytic performance enhancement and reduction of catalyst cost, PtxCu1-x(Pt35Cu65, Pt53Cu47, and Pt68Cu32) nanoarchitecture samples with controllable atomic composition, similar morphology and particle-size have been prepared by using a one-pot chemical route. The as-prepared PtxCu1-x nanoarchitectures are confirmed as consisting of the integration of initial small alloy nanoparticles (NPs), resulting in an interconnected nanoporous structure. The electrochemical experiments indicate that these PtxCu1-x nanocatalysts exhibit atomic composition dependent catalytic activity, although the surfaces of all the catalysts were characterized to be featured with a Pt enrichment structure. With optimal atomic composition, the Pt35Cu65 catalyst possesses enhanced electro-catalytic activities towards methanol oxidation in comparison with other PtxCu1-x samples and pure Pt catalyst with similar morphology. Furthermore, the integrated Pt35Cu65 nanoarchitecture displays good durability during the long term electrochemical scanning through as many as 1500 cycles. The comparable catalytic performance of Pt35Cu65 catalyst could be attributed to the interconnected initial small NPs, formation of open porous structure, durable nanoarchitecture, and synergetic effect of the alloyed atoms. The structural evolution from metastable small alloy NPs to integrated stable nanoarchitectures may provide new opportunities to design and prepare novel composite materials with durable structure and effective catalytic properties.

Original languageEnglish
Article number135706
JournalNanotechnology
Volume26
Issue number13
DOIs
StatePublished - 11 Mar 2015

Keywords

  • Alloy
  • Electrocatalytic
  • Nanoarchitecture

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