Methanol oxidation is vital for direct methanol fuel cells (DMFCs) and energy-saving H2 production by replacing the sluggish oxygen evolution reaction, but it suffers from CO poisoning, CO2 emission, and high overpotential issues. Herein, we present the simultaneous formation of a monodispersed intermetallic PtBi core/tensile-strained PtNiBi shell (I-PtBi@TS-PtNiBi) via a one-pot wet chemical method, to facilitate a self-powered methanol upgrading and H2 production system without CO2 emission. This I-PtBi@TS-PtNiBi electrocatalyst exhibits a high mass activity of 33.2 A mg–1 Pt toward methanol oxidation and produces value-added formate with high Faradaic efficiencies over a wide potential window of 0.6 to 1.2 V. This enables a high DMFC peak power density of 175.0 mW cm–2 to drive efficient H2 production in an anion-exchange-membrane water electrolyzer at low cell voltages (1.16 V@2.0 A cm–2), producing formate in both the DMFC and electrolyzer. This work offers insights into the rational design and synthesis of sophisticated multimetallic electrocatalysts for efficient energy conversion and chemical upgraders.
Luo et al. (Mon,) studied this question.