Self-Decoration of PtNi Alloy Nanoparticles on Multiwalled Carbon Nanotubes for Highly Efficient Methanol Electro-Oxidation

To satisfy increasing demands in energy and overcome issues of environment pollution, researches on sustainable and renewable energy which may replace traditional fossil fuels have become hot topics. Direct methanol fuel cells (DMFCs), a green power sources in vehicles and portable devices, have gained wide attentions [ 1 – 3 ]. Methanol as fuel has numerous advantages: simplicity in handling, storage, and transport; low cost and renewability because it can be easily obtained from fermentation of agricultural products [ 4 – 6 ]. The efficiency of methanol electro-oxidation is limited by poor kinetics and methanol crossover [ 6 , 7 ], and thus the development of anode catalysts with high catalytic performance is in an urgent need to achieve efficient DMFCs. Pt is the most widely used catalyst for electrochemical oxidation of methanol. However, during the electro-oxidation process, CO molecules are produced as the intermediate, which could be adsorbed on the Pt surface and hardly be removed. As a consequence, the surface poisoning of Pt by CO will suppress the catalytic activity, and this issue must be addressed for the realization of efficient and stable Pt catalysts [ 7 , 8 ].