A seed-mediated approach to the morphology-controlled synthesis of bimetallic copper–platinum alloy nanoparticles with enhanced electrocatalytic performance for the methanol oxidation reaction

Abstract

Mastery over the morphology of nanomaterials usually enables control of their properties and enhancement of their usefulness for a given application. Herein, we report a seed-mediated approach for the fabrication of bimetallic copper–platinum (CuPt) alloy nanoparticles with different morphologies. This strategy involves the first synthesis of Cu seed particles with multiple twins, and subsequent nucleation and growth of Pt metal. Then upon the Cu/Pt molar ratios in the synthesis, the rapid interdiffusion of Cu and Pt atoms results in the formation of bimetallic CuPt alloy nanoparticles with polyhedral, stellated, or dendritic morphologies. It has been found that both the morphology and electronic coupling effect between Cu and Pt components have significant effect on the electrochemical property of the alloy particles. In particular, the dendritic CuPt alloy nanoparticles display the highest specific activity for methanol oxidation reaction (MOR) due to their abundant atomic steps, edges, and corner atoms in the dendritic structure, while the polyhedral CuPt alloy particles show best carbon monoxide (CO) tolerant behavior due to the strong electronic donation effect from Cu to Pt atoms.