Strain Engineering to Enhance the Electrooxidation Performance of Atomic-Layer Pt on Intermetallic Pt3Ga

Key Points

• To evaluate how tensile strain engineering on atomic-layer platinum supported on intermetallic Pt3Ga affects methanol electrooxidation activity and intermediate binding energetics.
• Fabricated and tested atomic-layer platinum (AL-Pt) on intermetallic Pt3Ga catalysts in comparison with unstrained Pt counterparts and commercial Pt/C catalysts.
• Conducted density functional theory (DFT) calculations to model reaction energetics for the methanol oxidation reaction (MOR) and analyze the binding strength of surface intermediates (OH* and CO*).
• The tensile-strained atomic-layer Pt on Pt3Ga exhibited enhanced electrooxidation performance compared with its unstrained counterpart and commercial Pt/C catalysts.
• DFT calculations confirmed that the tensile-strained surface is energetically more favorable for MOR, as stronger OH* binding on stretched AL-Pt facilitates the efficient removal of poisoning CO* intermediates.