High-Temperature Atomic Mixing toward Well-Dispersed Bimetallic Electrocatalysts

Supported bimetallic alloy nanoparticles are of great interest in various catalytic applications due to the synergistic effects between different metals for improved catalytic performance. However, it still remains a challenge to efficiently synthesize atomically mixed alloy nanoparticles with uniform dispersion onto a desired substrate. Here, in situ, rapid synthesis of atomically mixed bimetallic nanoparticles well-dispersed on a conductive carbon network via a 1 s high-temperature pulse (HTP, approximate to 1550 K, duration 1 s, the rate of 10(4) K s(-1)) is reported. The high temperature facilitates the total ( atomic) mixing of different metals, while the rapid quenching ensures the uniform dispersion of nanoparticles with fine features such as twin boundaries and stacking faults, which are potentially beneficial to their catalytic performance. By varying the ratio of the precursor salts and parameters in the HTP process, the composition, size, and morphology of the resultant nanoparticles can easily be tuned. Moreover, the synthesized bimetallic (PdNi) nanoparticles demonstrate excellent electrocatalytic performance for the hydrogen evolution reaction and hydrogen peroxide electrooxidation. This work provides a general strategy for a facile and rapid synthesis of bimetallic nanoparticles directly from their salts for a range of emerging applications.