One-step synthesis of porous PtNiCu trimetallic nanoalloy with enhanced electrocatalytic performance toward methanol oxidation

Abstract Pt-based alloy nanoporous structures have attracted a lot of attention because of their high activity and stability toward alcohol oxidation reactions. Especially, Pt alloying with Earth-abundant metal can lower the cost of catalyst. Here, we introduce a one-pot approach to synthesize bimetallic PtCu and Ni-doped PtCu nanoalloy with porous structure. The as-synthesized Ni-doped Pt 60 Ni 3 Cu 37 nanoalloys exhibit excellent electrocatalytic properties toward methanol oxidation in acidic medium. The mass activity of the as-synthesized Pt 60 Ni 3 Cu 37 nanoalloys is 3.6 times and 5.3 times that of Pt 55 Cu 45 nanoalloys and commercial Pt black for methanol oxidation in 0.2 M methanol solution. Besides, the stability of the as-synthesized Pt 60 Ni 3 Cu 37 nanoalloys was much better than Pt 55 Cu 45 nanoalloys and commercial Pt black. After 3600 s chronoamperometry test, the remaining values of the Pt 60 Ni 3 Cu 37 nanoalloys are 3.7 times and 11.0 times that of Pt 55 Cu 45 nanoalloys and commercial Pt black. And it is the first time to report that small amount of Ni dopants can boost the activity and stability of PtNiCu alloys toward methanol oxidation.