Highly Catalytic Single-Crystal Dendritic Pt Nanostructures Supported on Carbon Nanotubes

Herein we describe a one-step method for the preparation of single-crystal, dendritic Pt nanoparticles with no need of organic solvents, templates, or seeded growth. It is shown that Pt nanoparticles with two different shapes-spherical or dendritic-can be efficiently supported onto the sidewalls of carbon nanotubes. Notably, the supported dendritic Pt nanostructrures yield unprecedented catalytic activity, evidenced through the lowest activation energy within an electron-transfer reaction as compared with those reported in the literature for Pt nanostructures.