Self‐Supported Composition‐Tunable Au/PtPd Core/Shell Tri‐Metallic Nanowires for Boosting Alcohol Electrooxidation and Suzuki Coupling

Abstract

AbstractTri‐metallic nanowire catalysts combine the synergistic effect of multiple metals with the geometrical effect of nanowires, exhibiting better catalytic performance than composition‐equivalent nanospherical catalysts. However, tri‐metallic nanowires are not easily produced directly because of the participation of multiple precursors and the difficulty of selecting capping agents. Herein, we develop a one‐pot, two‐step synthetic strategy, producing tri‐metallic Au/PdPt core/shell nanowires. Moreover, the PdPt shell is an alloy composed of nanoparticles, and its Pd : Pt atomic ratio is easily adjusted by controlling reaction time. The formation of Au/PdPt nanowires is attributed to the initial formation of Au/Pd core/shell nanowire and subsequent galvanic replacement between Pd shell and PtCl62−. As‐prepared Au/PdPt nanowires show composition‐ and structure‐dependent catalytic activity and durability for the electrooxidation of methanol and ethanol, and the Suzuki coupling reaction. Optimized Au/Pd63Pt37 nanowire, due to its proper Pd : Pt atomic ratio and porosity of the PdPt shell, exhibits excellent catalytic activity and durability towards methanol and ethanol electrooxidation, ∼18 and 11 times in the specific activity better than that of commercial state‐of‐the‐art Pt/C catalyst, respectively. Moreover, Au/Pd63Pt37 nanowire shows the superior catalytic performance in Suzuki coupling reaction, ∼96 % at yield, far better than commercial state‐of‐the‐art Pd/C catalyst.