Self-assembly of noble metal monolayers on transition metal carbide nanoparticle catalysts

One approach for increasing the activity of precious metals in catalysis is to coat them onto less expensive earth-abundant transition metal cores such as nickel, but often these structures alloy and deactivate during reactions. Hunt et al. synthesized several types of transition metal carbide nanoparticles coated with atomically thin precious-metal shells. Titanium-doped tungsten carbide nanoparticles with platinum-ruthenium shells were highly active for methanol electrooxidation, stable over 10,000 cycles, and resistant to CO deactivation. Science , this issue p. [974][1] [1]: /lookup/doi/10.1126/science.aad8471