Ultrathin PtMo-CeO hybrid nanowire assemblies as high-performance multifunctional catalysts for methanol oxidation, oxygen reduction and hydrogen oxidation

Abstract Although Pt-based alloy catalysts have been considered promising candidates for fuel cell applications, constructing highly efficient, multifunctional Pt-based catalysts that simultaneously boost the three key reactions (MOR, ORR and HOR) in proton exchange membrane fuel cells (PEMFCs) remains a huge challenge. Herein, PtMo-CeOx hybrids with interesting ultrathin and ultralong nanowire assemblies (NAs) structure are synthesized by a one-pot solvothermal method without templates. The PtMo-CeOx-NAs catalyst exhibits 5.2-fold, 6.9-fold and 2.4-fold higher mass activity than commercial Pt/C towards the MOR, ORR and HOR simultaneously and shows excellent durability and CO poisoning tolerance. Detailed experiments reveal that the enhancement should be due to strain and ligand effects. Most impressively, when PtMo-CeOx-NAs membrane electrode assemblies (MEAs) fabricated by a catalyst-coated method are used both as the anode and cathode in PEMFCs, the performance of fuel cells is dramatically boosted compared to those with Pt/C.