Controlled Synthesis of Pt-Pd Nanoparticle Chains with High Electrocatalytic Activity Based on Insulin Amyloid Fibrils

Abstract

Here, we present a simple and novel method based on using insulin amyloid fibrils (INSAFs) as sacrificial templates for the construction of Pt-Pd nanoparticle chains (Pt-PdNPCs) under mild conditions. By incubating INSAFs in metal salt solution and then reduction, Pt-Pd nanoparticles with an uniform particle size of around 2.5nm nucleated and grew along the axial direction of INSAFs, and thus formed a long chain structure with length up to several micrometers. The as-prepared Pt-PdNPCs exhibit an improved catalytic activity for low-temperature CO and methanol oxidation and possess greater CO tolerance compared with the commercial Pt/C catalyst, which makes them promising for a variety of possible catalytic applications.