Preparation of PtRu/C core–shell catalyst with polyol method for alcohol oxidation

•The PtRu NPs with narrow size distribution are prepared by polyol method.•Catalyst supported carbon with core–shell structure is successfully prepared.•The PtRu/C shows high activity and stability compared with PtRu/C (JM).•The electrooxidation performance of PtRu/C for EOR is better than for MOR.

Carbon supported PtRu core–shell catalyst is prepared by a facile and efficient method, in which the Ru nanoparticles are prepared with microwave-assisted method followed by in-situ reduction of Pt on Ru nanoparticles forming the PtRu core–shell structure. The catalyst is characterized by energy-dispersive X-ray spectroscope (EDX) analyzer attached to scanning electron microscope (SEM), transmission electron microscope (TEM), X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) and electrochemical measurements. The TEM results show that the synthesized PtRu/C catalysts have small particle size and narrow size distribution. The PtRu/C catalyst shows higher electrochemical performance toward ethanol oxidation reaction (EOR) compared with methanol oxidation reaction (MOR). Notably, the PtRu/C catalysts exhibit higher mass activity and stability than that of the commercial PtRu/C (JM) catalyst for ethanol electrooxidation.