Composition-Controlled Synthesis of Bimetallic PdPt Nanoparticles and Their Electro-oxidation of Methanol

PdPt alloy nanoparticles (NPs) are promising catalysts for various chemical reactions because of the presence of powerful catalytic components of Pt and Pd on the surface of one nanostructure. In this paper, we report a facile synthesis of polyhedral PdPt alloy NPs via coreduction of Pd(acac)(2) (acac = acetylacetonate) and Pt(acac)(2) with morpholine borane in oleylamine at 90 and 180 degrees C. In the synthesis, the molar ratio of the two metal precursors added in the reaction mixture was carried over to the final PdPt NP product, and compositions of the PdPt NPs were readily tuned from Pd(88)Pt(12) to Pd(34)Pt(66). These PdPt NPs show the composition-dependent catalytic activity for methanol oxidation, with NPs in 40-60 atomic % Pt exhibiting the superior activity and durability.