Electrospun bimetallic nanowires of PtRh and PtRu with compositional variation for methanol electrooxidation

Binary metallic nanowires (NWs) of PtRh and PtRu were synthesized by electrospinning method with compositional variation from 1:3 to 2:1. The electrospun bimetallic NWs were highly alloyed with diameters smaller than 60 nm and lengths up to hundreds of micrometers. The PtRh and PtRu NWs with 1:1 atomic ratio resulted in the higher catalytic mass activity over the methanol electrooxidation than those with the different atomic ratios, and the mass activity of Pt1Ru1 NWs was superior to the other NWs and even better than the commercial catalyst of the highly dispersed Pt1Ru1 nanoparticles on carbon. Moreover, the bimetallic NW electrocatalysts showed the better stability than the bimetallic nanoparticles. The enhancements of electrocatalytic properties for the Pt1Rh1 and Pt1Ru1 NWs could be attributed to their one-dimensional features, which can outperform on the electro-oxidations over the fuel cell electrodes.