Bimetallic nanocatalysts with large surface areas are vital for industrial catalysis applications and new energy technologies, such as fuel cells. Currently, most catalysts for these purposes are made via wet-chemical synthesis, which involves excessive use of organic reagents or high temperature reactions that are far from environmentally benign.
Now Yi Ding and colleagues1 report a simple route to tubular nanocatalysts of palladium or platinum with copper, which have enhanced electrocatalytic properties. Their method proceeds at room temperature and the catalysts show promising activities for use in fuel cells.
The researchers dealloyed copper/aluminium foils at room temperature to make nanoporous copper (NPC), which has a three-dimensional nanoporous structure with bicontinuous channels and solid ligaments about 50nm across. When they mixed NPC with a palladium or platinum chloride solution, a spontaneous replacement reaction occurred. The palladium or platinum coated the copper structure (Fig.1), and eventually excavated the NPC backbone to generate a doubly bicontinuous, tubular and porous structure.
Ding and colleagues found that the electrocatalytic activity of the platinum/copper nanotubular mesoporous catalyst was almost three times higher for the oxidation of methanol than the commercial platinum nanoparticle catalyst currently used for fuel cells. The authors suggest that the improved activity was due to the fact that platinum effectively forms both inner and outer surfaces in the bicontinuous structures, as well as the improved electron transport through the highly connected catalyst.
Our work could represent one of the simplest approaches to the new type of high surface area catalysts, says Ding. This method is very simple, environmentally benign, of no precious metal loss during fabrication, and can be easily scaled up.
He explains that the catalysts are likely to be ideal for fuel cell applications for four reasons. First, the specific activity of our catalyst is almost three times higher than that of the commercial catalyst. Second, our catalyst is much more tolerant to carbon monoxide poisoning, which is one of the major concerns for catalyst design in this field. Third, our catalyst also exhibits very impressive oxygen reduction reaction activity, which is even better than that of the commercial one. And finally, our catalyst is expected to have better operational durability.
Now Yi Ding and colleagues1 report a simple route to tubular nanocatalysts of palladium or platinum with copper, which have enhanced electrocatalytic properties. Their method proceeds at room temperature and the catalysts show promising activities for use in fuel cells.
The researchers dealloyed copper/aluminium foils at room temperature to make nanoporous copper (NPC), which has a three-dimensional nanoporous structure with bicontinuous channels and solid ligaments about 50nm across. When they mixed NPC with a palladium or platinum chloride solution, a spontaneous replacement reaction occurred. The palladium or platinum coated the copper structure (Fig.1), and eventually excavated the NPC backbone to generate a doubly bicontinuous, tubular and porous structure.
Ding and colleagues found that the electrocatalytic activity of the platinum/copper nanotubular mesoporous catalyst was almost three times higher for the oxidation of methanol than the commercial platinum nanoparticle catalyst currently used for fuel cells. The authors suggest that the improved activity was due to the fact that platinum effectively forms both inner and outer surfaces in the bicontinuous structures, as well as the improved electron transport through the highly connected catalyst.
Our work could represent one of the simplest approaches to the new type of high surface area catalysts, says Ding. This method is very simple, environmentally benign, of no precious metal loss during fabrication, and can be easily scaled up.
He explains that the catalysts are likely to be ideal for fuel cell applications for four reasons. First, the specific activity of our catalyst is almost three times higher than that of the commercial catalyst. Second, our catalyst is much more tolerant to carbon monoxide poisoning, which is one of the major concerns for catalyst design in this field. Third, our catalyst also exhibits very impressive oxygen reduction reaction activity, which is even better than that of the commercial one. And finally, our catalyst is expected to have better operational durability.
