To realize the commercial feasibility of nanoporous metal-based electrocatalysts in fuel cells, there is a need for a rapid and viable integrated process for fabricating membrane electrodes assemblies (MEAs). Herein, we report a type of electrocatalyst design for the glucose electro-oxidation reaction (GOR) based on a solid-phase reaction method. In the proposed design, structural defects and a nanoporous framework were integrated in a nanoporous gold (NPG) thin-film electrocatalyst to effectively boost the electrocatalytic behaviors for the GOR in an alkaline solution. The fabricated NPG thin-film catalyst was shown to exhibit a specific activity ca. 1.6 and 25.0 times higher than those of conventional NPG and polycrystalline Au and remarkably higher long-term cyclic stability. Hence, the proposed approach is a promising strategy for the integrated preparation of NPG-based MEAs, which are expected to ultimately promote the commercial applicability of fuel cells.

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