Tailored dendritic platinum nanostructures as a robust and efficient direct formic acid fuel cell anode

Engineering of platinum structures with precisely controlled morphology provides an excellent opportunity to efficiently tailor their catalytic performance, greatly improving their durability and activity. Herein, hierarchical, porous Pt dendrites were prepared via a simple and cheap synthesis method based on the galvanic displacement of Ag dendrites by Pt in ecofriendly aqueous solution at room temperature. These unique Pt structures showed greatly enhanced catalytic activity (approximate to 17 times) together with significantly improved stability (approximate to 4.0 fold) for formic acid electrooxidation compared to that of commercial Pt/C catalysts. These enhancements can be attributed to their unique structures providing a large specific surface area, high activity and catalyst utilization, besides improving the CO poisoning tolerance.