title: Pt35Cu65 nanoarchitecture: a highly durable and effective electrocatalyst towards methanol oxidation.
abstract: Aiming at electro-catalytic performance enhancement and reduction of catalyst cost, PtxCu1-x (Pt35Cu65, Pt53Cu47, and Pt68Cu32) nanoarchitecture samples with controllable atomic composition, similar morphology and particle-size have been prepared by using a one-pot chemical route. The as-prepared PtxCu1-x nanoarchitectures are confirmed as consisting of the integration of initial small alloy nanoparticles (NPs), resulting in an interconnected nanoporous structure. The electrochemical experiments indicate that these PtxCu1-x nanocatalysts exhibit atomic composition dependent catalytic activity, although the surfaces of all the catalysts were characterized to be featured with a Pt enrichment structure. With optimal atomic composition, the Pt35Cu65 catalyst possesses enhanced electro-catalytic activities towards methanol oxidation in comparison with other PtxCu1-x samples and pure Pt catalyst with similar morphology. Furthermore, the integrated Pt35Cu65 nanoarchitecture displays good durability during the long term electrochemical scanning through as many as 1500 cycles. The comparable catalytic performance of Pt35Cu65 catalyst could be attributed to the interconnected initial small NPs, formation of open porous structure, durable nanoarchitecture, and synergetic effect of the alloyed atoms. The structural evolution from metastable small alloy NPs to integrated stable nanoarchitectures may provide new opportunities to design and prepare novel composite materials with durable structure and effective catalytic properties.
authors.affiliation: Department of Chemistry, Shanghai University, Shanghai 200444, People's Republic of China. College of Material Science and Engineering, Shanghai University, Shanghai, 200444, People's Republic of China.
authors.forename: Yuan
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Zhang
authors.forename: Tingting
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Han
authors.forename: Lilian
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Zhu
authors.forename: Jianhui
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Fang
authors.forename: Gang
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Wang
authors.forename: Jiaqiang
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Xu
authors.forename: Pengcheng
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Xu
authors.forename: Xinxin
authors.initials: X
authors.lastname: Li
authors.forename: Chung-Chiun
authors.initials: CC
authors.lastname: Liu