Structure engineering of PtCu3/C catalyst from disordered to ordered intermetallic compound with heat-treatment for the methanol electrooxidation reaction

Platinum based alloys are hereinto the mostly used methanol oxidation catalysts. However, there are limited ways to improve the methanol oxidation reaction (MOR) performance of catalysts in terms of both activity and stability. Herein we developed a simple heat-treatment method to synthesize PtCu3/C intermetallic compound catalyst with lattice compression. The as-prepared PtCu3/C-1000 exhibited high specific activity of 3.23 mA.cm(-1) and mass activity of 1,200 mA.mg(pt)(-1), which is much higher than the PtCu3/C-untreated and commercial Pt/C catalysts, respectively. The XAS and DFT results shows the high activity of the catalyst towards MOR comes from the tightening of the Pt-M bond, which leads to the decrease of Fermi energy level and the make it difficulty in adsorbing carbon intermediates, thus releasing more active sites to promote the improvement of MOR performance. Moreover, the PtCu3/C-1000 shows better stability which is due to the surface-rich Pt prevents Cu from dissolution.

Automated summary

In this study, a simple heat-treatment method was used to synthesize a PtCu3/C intermetallic compound catalyst with lattice compression, showing high activity and stability. The high activity towards MOR was attributed to the tightening of the Pt-M bond and the prevention of Cu dissolution by Pt.