Au‐Doped Pt‐Co Aerogels as Efficient Electrocatalysts for Methanol Oxidation Electrocatalysts

Platinum‐based electrocatalysts represent the most promising candidates for the methanol oxidation reaction (MOR) in direct methanol fuel cells. However, the wide commercialization of platinum‐based electrocatalysts faces significant challenges, including high material costs, insufficient catalytic activity, limited operational durability, and susceptibility to CO poisoning. To overcome these issues, a new Au‐doped Pt‐Co aerogel (AG) is fabricated by the facile one‐pot aqueous‐solution heteroatom doping method. This catalyst demonstrates good electrocatalytic performance for MOR, combining both high activity and remarkable stability. The Au 1 ‐Pt 67 Co 33 AG with optimized Au doping amount exhibits outstanding mass activity, which is 1.7 times that of its undoped Pt 67 Co 33 AG counterpart and 4.6 times that of the commercial Pt/C catalyst. Furthermore, the Au 1 ‐Pt 67 Co 33 AG demonstrates significantly enhanced long‐term stability under continuous operation. Density functional theory calculations indicate that Au doping reduces the energy barriers for methanol dehydrogenation and lowers the total energy barriers for the *CO oxidation steps, facilitating the rapid dehydrogenation of CH n OH and faster conversion of *CO, thereby significantly enhancing the electrocatalytic activity and stability of the Au 1 ‐Pt 67 Co 33 AG toward MOR.