Uniformly dispersed platinum-cobalt alloy nanoparticles with stable compositions on carbon substrates for methanol oxidation reaction

Abstract Alloying platinum (Pt) with suitable transition metals is effective way to enhance their catalytic performance for methanol oxidation reaction, and reduce their cost at mean time. Herein, we report our investigation on the synthesis of bimetallic platinum-cobalt (PtCo) alloy nanoparticles, their activation, as well as the catalytic evaluation for methanol oxidation reaction. The strategy starts with the synthesis of PtCo alloy nanoparticles in an organic medium, followed by loading on carbon substrates. We then remove the capping agent by refluxing the carbon-supported PtCo particles in acetic acid before electrochemical measurements. We emphasize the change in composition of the alloys during refluxing process, and the initial PtCo alloys with Pt/Co ratio of 1/2 turns into stable alloys with Pt/Co ratio of 3/1. The final Pt3Co particles have uniform distribution on carbon substrates, and exhibit activity with 2.4 and 1.5 times of that for commercial Pt/C and PtRu/C for methanol oxidation reaction.