Facile preparation of Cu@Pt/rGO hybrids and their electrocatalytic activities for methanol oxidation

Abstract

Here we prepared Cu@Pt core–shell nanoparticles (NPs) anchored on the reduced graphene oxide (rGO) via a sequential wet chemical process. The morphologies and structures of the as-prepared catalysts were characterized by transmission electron microscope (TEM), X-ray diffraction (XRD) and ultraviolet–visible (UV) absorption spectrum. The electrochemical measurements show that the Cu@Pt/rGO catalysts have superior catalytic activity and stability for methanol electrooxidation compared to Cu@Pt/Vulcan XC-72(XC-72) with the same Pt content, which may be a consequence of mutual effect of the Cu@Pt core–shell NPs and rGO support.