A facile and general strategy for the synthesis of porous flowerlike Pt-based nanocrystals as effective electrocatalysts for alcohol oxidation

Abstract

In this paper, porous flowerlike Pt-based (Pt, PdPt, RhPt and RhPdPt) nanocrystals were successfully achieved by a simple, economic, environmentally friendly route under the same synthetic conditions at 85 °C. The electrocatalytic properties of these flowerlike Pt-based nanocrystals toward alcohols (glycol, glycerol, methanol and ethanol) oxidation were investigated and they displayed enhanced catalytic performance compared with commercial Pt black. Among them, porous Pd_45.5Pt_54.5 nanoflowers showed the best catalytic performance with significant mass activity and long-term stability. More importantly, the current synthesis strategy can be easily amplified to gram-scale production.