A facile and general strategy for the synthesis of porous flowerlike Pt-based nanocrystals as effective electrocatalysts for alcohol oxidation.

In this paper, porous flowerlike Pt-based (Pt, PdPt, RhPt and RhPdPt) nanocrystals were successfully achieved by a simple, economic, environmentally friendly route under the same synthetic conditions at 85 °C. The electrocatalytic properties of these flowerlike Pt-based nanocrystals toward alcohols (glycol, glycerol, methanol and ethanol) oxidation were investigated and they displayed enhanced catalytic performance compared with commercial Pt black. Among them, porous Pd45.5Pt54.5 nanoflowers showed the best catalytic performance with significant mass activity and long-term stability. More importantly, the current synthesis strategy can be easily amplified to gram-scale production.

Size-controllable synthesis of trimetallic RhPdPt island-shaped nanoalloys with enhanced electrocatalytic performance for ethanol oxidation in alkaline medium.

Size-controllable, high-yield, island-shaped RhPdPt trimetallic nanocrystals with sub-2.0 nm islands have been successfully synthesized through a facile aqueous solution approach. The results of X-ray diffraction (XRD), energy-dispersive X-ray (EDX) line scanning and elemental mapping analysis showed the as-synthesized RhPdPt nanocrystals are alloy structures. These island-shaped RhPdPt trimetallic nanoalloys showed a composition-dependent electrocatalytic performance for ethanol oxidation in alkaline medium. Due to the special structure and intermetallic synergies, the Rh10Pd40Pt50 nanoalloys exhibited an enhanced catalytic activity and durability relative to island-shaped Pd50Pt50 bimetallic nanoalloys and commercial Pt black. The peak current density for Rh10Pd40Pt50 nanoalloys was 1.81 and 1.38 times that for commercial Pt black and Pd50Pt50 nanoalloys, respectively. In addition, the peak potential on Rh10Pd40Pt50 nanoalloys decreased 42 mV relative to commercial Pt black and Pd50Pt50 nanoalloys.