Ultimate Corrosion to Pt-Cu Electrocatalysts for Enhancing Methanol Oxidation Activity and Stability in Acidic Media.

Alloying platinum (Pt) with transition metals (M), as an established class of electrocatalysts, enable reduce the usage of Pt and improves the electrocatalytic performances. Stability of transition metals in nanostructured platinum alloys is however a fundamental and practical problem in electrocatalysis, due to leaching of transition metals under acidic operating condition. Herein, an ultimate corrosion method has been developed to a Pt-Cu electrocatalyst with high activity (6.6 folds of commercial Pt/C) and excellent stability for methanol oxidation reaction (MOR) under acidic operating conditions. A formation mechanism has been studied, and possible mesostructured re-formation and atomic re-organization have been proposed. This work offers an effective strategy for the facile synthesis of the highly acidic stable PtM alloying and opens a door to high-performance design for electrocatalysts.