Heterogeneous nanostructure of ternary PtRu-Au/C nano-catalyst towards formic acid oxidation

Abstract

It is a big challenge to explore strategies for efficiently utilizing the excellent co-catalytic elements such as Au and Ru in single electrocatalyst to enhance the kinetics of formic acid oxidation reaction (FOR) on Pt-based electrocatalysts. Herein, a novel ternary PtRu-Au/C catalyst with Au nanoparticles and PtRu alloy nanoparticles is designed for FOR. The PtRu-Au/C catalyst is facilely synthesized by self-assembly method and exhibits 13 and 5 times higher specific activity for formic acid electrooxidation than Pt/C and PtRu/C, which is ascribed to the synergy of kinetics acceleration by Au nanoparticles and enhanced poisoning tolerance resulting from Ru element.