Excavated Cubic Platinum-Tin Alloy Nanocrystals Constructed from Ultrathin Nanosheets with Enhanced Electrocatalytic Activity

Qiaoli Chen; Yanan Yang; Zhenming Cao; Qin Kuang; Guifen Du; Yaqi Jiang; Zhaoxiong Xie; Lansun Zheng

doi:10.1002/anie.201602592

Excavated Cubic Platinum-Tin Alloy Nanocrystals Constructed from Ultrathin Nanosheets with Enhanced Electrocatalytic Activity

Angew Chem Int Ed Engl. 2016 Jul 25;55(31):9021-5. doi: 10.1002/anie.201602592. Epub 2016 Jun 21.

Authors

Qiaoli Chen¹, Yanan Yang¹, Zhenming Cao¹, Qin Kuang², Guifen Du¹, Yaqi Jiang¹, Zhaoxiong Xie³, Lansun Zheng¹

Affiliations

¹ State Key Laboratory for Physical Chemistry of Solid Surfaces Collaborative Innovation Center of Chemistry for Energy Materials Department of Chemistry, College of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering, Xiamen University, Xiamen, 361005, P.R. China.
² State Key Laboratory for Physical Chemistry of Solid Surfaces Collaborative Innovation Center of Chemistry for Energy Materials Department of Chemistry, College of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering, Xiamen University, Xiamen, 361005, P.R. China. qkuang@xmu.edu.cn.
³ State Key Laboratory for Physical Chemistry of Solid Surfaces Collaborative Innovation Center of Chemistry for Energy Materials Department of Chemistry, College of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering, Xiamen University, Xiamen, 361005, P.R. China. zxxie@xmu.edu.cn.

PMID: 27325395
DOI: 10.1002/anie.201602592

Abstract

Excavated polyhedral noble-metal materials that were built by the orderly assembly of ultrathin nanosheets have both large surface areas and well-defined facets, and therefore could be promising candidates for diverse important applications. In this work, excavated cubic Pt-Sn alloy nanocrystals (NCs) with {110} facets were constructed from twelve nanosheets by a simple co-reduction method with the assistance of the surface regulator polyvinylpyrrolidone. The specific surface area of the excavated cubic Pt-Sn NCs is comparable to that of commercial Pt black despite their larger particle size. The excavated cubic Pt-Sn NCs exhibited superior electrocatalytic activity in terms of both the specific area current density and the mass current density towards methanol oxidation.

Keywords: alloys; electrocatalysis; nanocrystals; platinum; tin.

Publication types

Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't