Simple one-pot synthesis of platinum-palladium nanoflowers with enhanced catalytic activity and methanol-tolerance for oxygen reduction in acid media

•Bimetallic alloyed PtPd nanoflowers are prepared by a simple one-pot solvothermal co-reduction method.•PtPd nanoflowers display high catalytic performance for ORR dominated by a four-electron pathway.•PtPd nanoflowers show good methanol tolerance for ORR.

In this work, bimetallic alloyed platinum-palladium (PtPd) nanoflowers are fabricated by one-pot solvothermal co-reduction of Pt (II) acetylacetonate and Pd (II) acetylacetonate in oleylamine system. The as-prepared nanostructures show the enhanced electrocatalytic activity for oxygen reduction reaction (ORR), dominated by a four-electron pathway based on the Koutecky-Levich plots, mainly owing to the inhibition of the formation of Pt–OHad via the downshift of d-band center for Pt. Meanwhile, PtPd nanoflowers display good methanol tolerance and improved stability for ORR. The chronoamperometry test reveals that the current of PtPd nanoflowers remains 45.9% of its original value within 6000 s, much higher than those of commercial Pt (36.7%) and Pd (32.2%) black catalysts. Therefore, PtPd nanoflowers with unique interconnected structures can be used as a promising cathode catalyst in direct methanol fuel cells.

Graphical abstractPtPd nanoflowers were fabricated by one-pot solvothermal co-reduction method in oleylamine system, which exhibited the improved electrocatalytic activity and higher methanol tolerance for oxygen reduction, compared with commercial Pt and Pd black catalysts.Figure optionsDownload full-size imageDownload as PowerPoint slide