Carbon-supported PtAu alloy nanoparticle catalysts for enhanced electrocatalytic oxidation of formic acid

The understanding of the electrocatalytic activity of bimetallic nanoparticle catalysts requires the ability to precisely control the composition and phase properties. In this report, we describe a new strategy in the preparation of a series of carbon supported platinum-gold bimetallic nanoparticles with various bimetallic compositions which were loaded onto a carbon black support and subjected subsequently by thermal treatment (Pt100-mAum/C). The Pt100-mAum/C catalysts are characterized by X-ray diffraction (XRD), transmission electron spectroscopy (TEM), and induced coupled plasma-atomic emission spectroscopy (ICP-AES). The XRD pattern for the bimetallic nanoparticles shows single-phase alloy character. This ability enabled us to establish the correlation between the bimetallic composition and the electrocatalytic activity for formic acid (FA) electrooxidation. The electrocatalytic activities of the catalysts toward FA oxidation reaction are shown to strongly depend on the bimetallic PtAu composition. Within a wide range of bimetallic composition, the Pt50Au50/C catalyst shows the highest electrocatalytic activity for the FA oxidation, with a mass activity eight times higher than that of Pt/C. The high performance of the PtAu/C catalyst can be ascribed to the increased selectivity toward the FA dehydrogenation at the decreased availability of adjacent Pt atoms. (C) 2011 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.