Carbon supported ultrafine gold phosphorus nanoparticles as highly efficient electrocatalyst for alkaline ethanol oxidation reaction

•Au-P/C catalyst is synthesized by a facile and novel white-phosphorus reduce method.•AuP particles with ultrafine particle-size are uniformly dispersed on carbon support.•Au-P/C catalyst exhibits much higher content of P0 than reported metal/P catalysts.•Au-P/C catalysts show excellent catalytic properties for ethanol oxidation reaction.

Herein, we develop a new kind of carbon supported gold-phosphorus (Au-P/C) electrocatalyst for the alkaline ethanol oxidation reaction (EOR). The Au-P/C catalysts with different Au/P ratio (i.e., AuP/C, Au3P2/C and Au4P3/C) can be obtained by a facile and novel hot-reflux method with white phosphorus (P4) as reductant and ethanol as solvent. The crystal structure, composition and particle-size of the Au-P/C catalysts are investigated by X-ray diffraction (XRD), Energy Dispersive Spectrometer (EDS), scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS), etc. The results demonstrate that Au-P/C catalysts present an alloy phase with the high content of P, ultrafine particle-size and high dispersity on carbon support, which results in excellent electrocatalytic activity and stability towards the EOR compared with that of the free-phosphorus Au/C catalyst. In addition, among the various Au-P/C catalysts with different Au/P ratio, the AuP/C sample exhibits the best electrocatalytic performance in comparison with other Au3P2/C and Au4P3/C samples.

Graphical abstractWe develop a new kind of carbon supported gold-phosphorus (Au-P/C) electrocatalyst by a facile and novel phosphorus reduction method, and demonstrate the Au-P/C is a highly active and stable electrocatalyst for the ethanol oxidation reaction.Download high-res image (122KB)Download full-size image