One-Pot and Facile Fabrication of Hierarchical Branched Pt–Cu Nanoparticles as Excellent Electrocatalysts for Direct Methanol Fuel Cells

Abstract

Hierarchical branched nanoparticles are one promising nanostructure with three-dimensional open porous structure composed of integrated branches for superior catalysis. We have successfully synthesized Pt-Cu hierarchical branched nanoparticles (HBNDs) with small size of about 30 nm and composed of integrated ultrathin branches by using a modified polyol process with introduction of poly(vinylpyrrolidone) and HCl. This strategy is expected to be a general strategy to prepare various metallic nanostructures for catalysis. Because of the special open porous structure, the as-prepared Pt-Cu HBNDs exhibit greatly enhanced specific activity toward the methanol oxidation reaction as much as 2.5 and 1.7 times compared with that of the commercial Pt-Ru and Pt-Ru/C catalysts, respectively. Therefore, they are potentially applicable as electrocatalysts for direct methanol fuel cells.

Designed Synthesis of Size‐Controlled PtCu Alloy Nanoparticles Encapsulated in Carbon Nanofibers and Their High Efficient Electrocatalytic Activity Toward Hydrogen Evolution Reaction

“…In addition, Figure i shows an HRTEM image of a PtCu NPs and the crystalline lattices marked with the yellow line segment were spaced at distances of 2.2 and 1.9 Å, corresponding to the (111) and (200) plane of PtCu NPs, respectively. Thus, the results imply the formation of PtCu alloy …”

Dendritic Core‐Frame and Frame Multimetallic Rhombic Dodecahedra: A Comparison Study of Composition and Structure Effects on Electrocatalysis of Methanol Oxidation

“…Cu has been identified as a promising replacement for Ru by density functional theory (DFT) prediction, and the atomic arrangement of Pt and Cu within the alloy is important for optimizing the electrocatalytic activity . Previous work studied the electrocatalytic activity of PtCu alloyed nanostructures for MOR including nanocubes, nanocages,, hexapod concave structures, and nanodendrites ,. These PtCu nanostructures exhibit enhanced electrocatalytic activity compared to the PtCu spherical nanoparticles, due to the presence of more active sites for MOR.…”

Fabrication of C@Mo Ti1−O2−δ nanocrystalline with functionalized interface as efficient and robust PtRu catalyst support for methanol electrooxidation

“…However, the sluggish kinetics of electrochemical reactions on both the anode and cathode of the DM-FCs system despite the use of a Pt surface (an optimal catalyst for methanol electrooxidation reaction (MOR) and oxygen reduction reaction (ORR)). Over 2 mg cm −1 of Pt loading capacity is required to achieve a reasonable power density, greatly obstructing large-scale commercialization [1,5,[9][10][11][12][13][14] . Hence, countless efforts have been devoted to researching aspects of catalytic metals and advanced support materials [10,13,[15][16][17][18][19][20][21][22] .…”