Mesoporous PtCu Alloy Nanoparticles with Tunable Compositions and Particles Sizes Using Diblock Copolymer Micelle Templates

A simple, scalable route for the generation of mesoporous Rh particles by chemical reduction on self-assembled block-copolymer micelle templates was reported recently (Nat. Commun. 2017, 8, 15581). Here, this concept is extended to generate mesoporous PtCu alloy nanoparticles through the same approach. The PtCu alloy particles possess high-surface-area nanoporous architectures and good chemical stability for applications in catalysis. Both the composition and diameter of the bimetallic PtCu nanoparticles can be controlled by adjusting the amount of precursor in the reaction, which affects the electrochemical properties of the material. The combination of the mesoporous structure with the synergistic bimetallic electronic effects of PtCu gives rise to enhanced activity for the catalytic oxidation of methanol compared with commercial Pt black.