One-Pot Synthesis of Highly Efficient Carbon-Supported Polyhedral Pt3Ni Alloy Nanoparticles for Oxygen Reduction Reaction

Abstract

The oxygen reduction reaction (ORR) properties were intensely affected by the facet of electrocatalysts. For example, (111) facet of Pt3Ni alloy has been proved to have excellent ORR electrocatalytic activity. Therefore, it could be very important to synthesize Pt3Ni nanocrystals with large proportion of (111) facet. However, most reported Pt3Ni polyhedron bound by (111) facets were synthesized using capping agents like oleylamine and oleic acid. These organic ligands will hinder the intrinsic ORR performance of catalyst and require tedious process to remove. Here, we report a one-pot synthesis of capping agents free for polyhedron Pt3Ni alloy nanoparticles on carbon (Pt3Ni/C) with large proportion of Pt3Ni (111) facets. The electrocatalysts achieved an enhancement of 224% in mass activity and 8.7-fold specific activity towards ORR in comparison with commercial Pt/C catalyst. The present study provides a simple method for designing highly efficient Pt alloy electrocatalysts. Graphical Abstract A one-pot process of capping agents free was applied to synthesize polyhedron Pt3Ni alloy nanoparticles on carbon (Pt3Ni/C), which features large proportion of Pt3Ni (111) facets and shows enhanced oxygen reduction reaction performance in comparison with commercial Pt/C. A one-pot process of capping agents free was applied to synthesize polyhedron Pt3Ni alloy nanoparticles on carbon (Pt3Ni/C), which features large proportion of Pt3Ni (111) facets and shows enhanced oxygen reduction reaction performance in comparison with commercial Pt/C.