One-step synthesis of porous PtNiCu trimetallic nanoalloy with enhanced electrocatalytic performance toward methanol oxidation

Pt-based alloy nanoporous structures have attracted a lot of attention because of their high activity and stability toward alcohol oxidation reactions. Especially, Pt alloying with Earthabundant metal can lower the cost of catalyst. Here, we introduce a one-pot approach to synthesize bimetallic PtCu and Ni-doped PtCu nanoalloy with porous structure. The as-synthesized Ni-doped Pt60Ni3Cu37 nanoalloys exhibit excellent electrocatalytic properties toward methanol oxidation in acidic medium. The mass activity of the as-synthesized Pt60Ni3Cu37 nanoalloys is 3.6 times and 5.3 times that of Pt55Cu45 nanoalloys and commercial Pt black for methanol oxidation in 0.2 M methanol solution. Besides, the stability of the as-synthesized Pt60Ni3Cu37 nanoalloys was much better than Pt55Cu45 nanoalloys and commercial Pt black. After 3600 s chronoamperometry test, the remaining values of the Pt60Ni3Cu37 nanoalloys are 3.7 times and 11.0 times that of Pt55Cu45 nanoalloys and commercial Pt black. And it is the first time to report that small amount of Ni dopants can boost the activity and stability of PtNiCu alloys toward methanol oxidation. (C) 2018 King Saud University. Production and hosting by Elsevier B.V.