Synthesis of quinary PtPdNiAuCu nanotubes with ultrahigh electrocatalytic activity for oxygen reduction reaction

Binary, ternary and quaternary Pt-based alloy nanotubes have been used as low-platinum-content oxygen reduction reaction catalysts in fuel cells. To date, quinary Pt-based alloy nanotubes have not yet been reported due to the difficulty of synthesis. Here for the first time, we synthesize the quinary PtPdNiAuCu nanotubes and quaternary PtPdNiCu NTs, PtPdCu NTs by using Cu nanowires as the sacrificial template. The mass activity of PtPdNiAuCu NTs-21 is 3.49 A/mgPt at 0.9 VRHE in the alkaline medium, which is higher than that of PtPdNiCu NTs, PtPdCu NTs and commercial Pt/C. PtPdNiAuCu NTs-21 exhibit highest ORR performance among the re-ported tubular platinum-based catalysts. Quinary NTs-21 reveal a 45.56% performance retention after 70,000 cycles, while the mass activity after cycling is also 6.12 times higher than that of commercial Pt/C. The evident improvement in the catalytic activity and endurance of NTs can benefit from the 1D morphology, ligand effect of non Pt elements and the addition of Au.

Automated summary

For the first time, researchers have synthesized quinary PtPdNiAuCu nanotubes and quaternary PtPdNiCu NTs, PtPdCu NTs, and used them as low-platinum-content oxygen reduction reaction catalysts in fuel cells. The quinary nanotubes exhibited higher mass activity and better endurance compared to the quaternary nanotubes and commercial Pt/C.