Facile solvothermal synthesis of Pt71Co29 lamellar nanoflowers as an efficient catalyst for oxygen reduction and methanol oxidation reactions

Abstract

The research for highly efficient and stable electrocatalysts in fuel cells has attracted substantial interest. Herein, bimetallic alloyed Pt71Co29 lamellar nanoflowers (LNFs) with abundant active sites were obtained by a one-pot solvothermal method, where cetyltrimethylammonium chloride (CTAC) and 1-nitroso-2-naphthol (1-N-2-N) served as co-structure-directors, while oleylamine (OAm) as the solvent and reducing agent. The fabricated Pt71Co29 LNFs exhibited the higher mass activity (MA, 128.29 mA mg−1) for oxygen reduction reaction (ORR) than those of home-made Pt48Co52 nanodendrites (NDs), Pt79Co21 NDs and commercial Pt black with the values of 39.46, 49.42 and 22.91 mA mg−1, respectively. Meanwhile, the MA (666.23 mA mg−1) and specific activity (SA, 2.51 mA cm−2) of the constructed Pt71Co29 LNFs for methanol oxidation reaction (MOR) are superior than those of Pt48Co52 NDs (213.91 mA mg−1, 1.99 mA cm−2), Pt79Co21 NDs (210.09 mA mg−1, 1.12 mA cm−2) and Pt black (57.03 mA mg−1, 0.25 mA cm−2). Also, the Pt71Co29 LNFs catalyst exhibited the best durable ability relative to the references. This work demonstrates that the developed strategy provides a facile platform for synthesis of high-performance, low-cost and robust catalysts in practical catalysis, energy storage and conversion.