Nanocrystalline intermetallics on mesoporous carbon for direct formic acid fuel cell anodes
- 28 February 2010
- journal article
- Published by Springer Science and Business Media LLC in Nature Chemistry
- Vol. 2 (4), 286-293
- https://doi.org/10.1038/nchem.553
Abstract
Shape-and size-controlled supported metal and intermetallic nanocrystallites are of increasing interest because of their catalytic and electrocatalytic properties. In particular, intermetallics PtX (X=Bi, Pb, Pd, Ru) are very attractive because of their high activity as fuel-cell anode catalysts for formic acid or methanol oxidation. These are normally synthesized using high-temperature techniques, but rigorous size control is very challenging. Even low-temperature techniques typically produce nanoparticles with dimensions much greater than the optimum 6 nm required for fuel cell catalysis. Here, we present a simple and robust, chemically controlled process for synthesizing size-controlled noble metal or bimetallic nanocrystallites embedded within the porous structure of ordered mesoporous carbon (OMC). By using surface-modified ordered mesoporous carbon to trap the metal precursors, nanocrystallites are formed with monodisperse sizes as low as 1.5nm, which can be tuned up to ∼3.5nm. To the best of our knowledge, 3-5 nm ordered mesoporous carbon-supported PtBi nanoparticles exhibit the highest mass activity for formic acid oxidation reported to date, and over double that of Pt-Au.close14612Keywords
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