Superior liquid fuel oxidation electrocatalysis enabled by novel one-dimensional AuM (M = Pt, Pd) nanowires

Active and enduring catalysts for the electrooxidation reaction of liquid fuel play a crucial role in affecting the commercial application of direct fuel cells technology. Unfortunately, the electrocatalysts used in direct fuel cells fall far from the expectations and suffer from the issues of both extremely high cost and serious activity degradation. In this work, we herein demonstrate a template free method to successfully synthesize the unique one-dimensional AuM (M = Pt, Pd) nanowires. The alloy and electronic effect between Au and Pt (or Pd), as well as the unique one-dimensional nanowire structure are of vital significance for the electrocatalytic activity enhancements of Pt1Au1 and Pd1Au1 nanowires towards ethylene glycol and glycerol oxidation with the mass activity of 7.81 and 5.72 A mg(pt)(-1),6.55 and 4.52 A mg(pd)(-1), respectively. Our efforts highlight a split-new channel to maximize catalytic efficiency with noble metal utilization for efficient liquid fuel electrocatalysis and beyond.