Fabrication and electrocatalytic properties of ferromagnetic nanoporous PtFe by dealloying an amorphous Fe60Pt10B30 alloy

A nanoporous PtFe (np-PtFe) alloy composed of a single face-centered-cubic FePt phase has been fabricated by electrochemically dealloying an amorphous Fe60Pt10B30 alloy in 0.1 mol L−1 H2SO4 solution. The np-PtFe alloy possesses a fine bicontinuous ligament/channel structure with average ligament and pore sizes of about 7 and 5 nm, respectively. The np-PtFe alloy exhibits superior electrocatalytic activity for methanol oxidation reaction in the acid media to the commercial Johnson Matthey Pt/C catalyst and soft magnetic characteristics with a saturation magnetization of 19.09 emu/g.