N-doped carbon-stabilized Pt3Co nanoparticles as an efficient catalyst for methanol electro-oxidation

Abstract The commercial development of direct methanol fuel cells (DMFCs) has been hampered by Pt anode catalysts with a high cost, and its long-term stability is also unsatisfactory, especially in acidic media. Therefore, the development of catalysts with high efficiency and low cost is an urgent problem. To reduce costs, a simple solution is to use non-precious transition metals to partially replace precious metal Pt. Moreover, the catalyst supports are also crucial in term of stabilizing and dispersing Pt-based catalysts. Herein, N-doped carbon-stabilized Pt3Co catalyst (Pt3Co/NC) is successfully prepared via the pyrolysis of Pt-encapsulated Co/Zn-based zeolitic imidazolate frameworks (Pt@ZIF-8/67). And catalytic performance of Pt3Co/NC catalyst is studied in 0.5 M H2SO4 solution containing 0.5 M CH3OH. The area specific activity of Pt3Co/NC catalyst is 1.15 mA cm-2 Pt, which is about 4 times as great as that of commercial Pt/C. Furthermore, the as-prepared catalyst also shows better stability compared to Pt/C.