Fabrication of hollow platinum-ruthenium core-shell catalysts with nanochannels and enhanced performance for methanol oxidation

This work reports the preparation of hollow PtRu core shell catalysts with TiO2 as template, in which the Pt nanoparticles (NPs) grow on the exterior surface of Ru layer. The quantity of Pt NPs is easily tailored to control the integrity of Pt shell through varying the concentration of H2PtCl(6) solution. Scanning electron microscope (SEM), transmission electron microscopy (TEM), X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS), X-ray diffraction (XRD) and selected-area electron diffraction (SAED) are used to characterize the structure and morphology of H-PtRu. The core shell structure is confirmed by the high-angle annular dark-field scanning TEM (HAADF-STEM) with energy-disperse X-ray spectroscopy (EDX). The electrochemical performance of H-PtRu is investigated by cyclic voltammetry and chronoamperometry. Results show that the catalytic activity of H-PtRu toward methanol oxidation reaction (MOR) is similar to 2.5 times higher than that of Pt/C (JM), and the electrocatalytic stability improves with the increase of Ru content. Furthermore, H-PtRu exhibits better stability for methanol oxidation compared to Pt/C (JM) and PtRu/C (JM). (C) 2015 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.