Fabrication of a high-performance Pb-PtCu/CNT catalyst for methanol electro-oxidation

This work presents a general strategy to fabricate a new type of hierarchically structured trimetallic nanocatalyst. Cu nanoparticles are partially displaced by Pt4+ and then further decorated by Pb (II) species on the carbon nanotube surface. The X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy and cyclic voltammograms data demonstrate that Cu is inside the particles while Pb (II) species are outside. The novel Pb-PtCu/CNT catalyst exhibits superior stability and CO poisoning tolerance during potential cycling. Methanol oxidation peak current of this novel catalyst (94.4 mA cm(-2)) is almost two times higher than that of the commercial PtRu/C (50 mA cm(-2)). (C) 2012 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.