Molybdenum-modified and vertex-reinforced quaternary hexapod nano-skeletons as efficient electrocatalysts for methanol oxidation and oxygen reduction reaction

Abstract Noble metal binary and ternary catalysts have become a new class of fuel cell electrocatalysts due to their high catalytic activity. However, improvement is still necessary to reduce the consumption of Pt and obtain the quaternary Pt-based catalyst by Mo modification. Through the introduction of Mo(CO)6, novel quaternary hexapod nano-skeletons with high-index facets are obtained here, which are composed of core, first-layer feet and second-layer feet. Compared with PtCoNi nano-particles (NPs), the vertex-reinforced PtCoNiMo hexapod nano-skeletons (NSs), due to abundant tip areas, can facilitate electron transfer and mass exchange. It is found that the as prepared PtCoNiMo nano-skeletons catalyst exhibits enhanced mass activity, stability and anti-poisoning ability towards methanol oxidation reaction and oxygen reduction reaction, compared to commercial Pt/C catalyst and PtCoNi nanoparticles. More importantly, the development of quaternary catalysts can create better possibilities for the performance improvement of Pt-based catalysts.