Facile Synthesis of Platinum Alloy Nanoparticles with Enhanced Activity for Ethylene Glycol Electro-Oxidation

Aimed at obtaining low loading and high active Pt-based catalysts for the electro-oxidation of small organic molecule fuels, a novel tripod and concave nanocubes CNCs) Pt-Ni alloy catalysts were synthesized through a simple wet chemistry method. The concentration of iodine, nickel ions and reaction temperature were found to be partially responsible for the formation of such structures. Electro-catalytic tests demonstrated that the specific activity of the as-prepared catalyst was close to 558 mu A/cm(2), which is almost 2 times than that of commercial Pt/C catalyst 289 mu A/cm(2)) for ethylene glycol EG) electro-oxidation. (C) 2014 The Electrochemical Society. All rights reserved.