Heterogeneous nanocomposites of silver selenide and hollow platinum nanoparticles toward methanol oxidation reaction

Making use of the electronic coupling between different domains in composite nanomaterials is an effective way to enhance the activity of electrocatalysts. Herein, we demonstrate the preparation of nanocomposites consisting of silver selenide (Ag2Se) and platinum (Pt) nanoparticles with a hollow interior by combining the inside-out diffusion of Ag in core-shell Ag-Pt nanoparticles with the synthesis of highly active hydrophobic Se species. In specific, the Ag2Se-hPt nanocomposites are found to have superior activity and stability for methanol oxidation reaction in an acidic condition due to the strong electronic coupling effect between semiconductor and metal domains. This strategy may provide a greener and less expensive way to the large-scale synthesis of Pt-based nanocomposites, and might be used to generate other heterogeneous nanomaterials with technological importance. (C) 2016 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.