Facile Synthesis of PdCu Echinus-Like Nanocrystals as Robust Electrocatalysts for Methanol Oxidation Reaction

Exploiting high-performance and inexpensive electrocatalysts for methanol electro-oxidation is conductive to promoting the commercial application of direct methanol fuel cells. Here, we present a facile synthesis of echinus-like PdCu nanocrystals (NCs) via a one-step and template-free method. The echinus-like PdCu NCs possess numerous straight and long branches which can provide abundant catalytic active sites. Owing to the novel nanoarchitecture and electronic effect of the PdCu alloy, the echinus-like PdCu NCs display high electrocatalytic performance toward methanol oxidation reaction in an alkaline medium. The mass activity of echinus-like PdCu NCs is 1202.1 mA mg(Pd)(-1), which is 3.7 times that of Pd/C catalysts. In addition, the echinus-like structure, as a kind of three-dimensional self-supported nanoarchitecture, endows PdCu NCs with significantly enhanced stability and durability. Hence, the echinus-like PdCu NCs hold prospect of being employed as electrocatalysts for direct alcohol fuel cells.