A catalytic site typically consists of one or more atoms of a catalyst surface that arrange into a configuration offering a specific electronic structure for adsorbing or dissociating reactant molecules. The catalytic activity of adjacent bimetallic sites of metallic nanoparticles has been studied previously. An isolated bimetallic site supported on a non-metallic surface could exhibit a distin...

Controlling the morphology of Pt nanostructures can provide a great opportunity to improve their catalytic properties and increase their activity on a mass basis. We synthesized Pd-Pt bimetallic nanodendrites consisting of a dense array of Pt branches on a Pd core by reducing K2PtCl4 with L-ascorbic acid in the presence of uniform Pd nanocrystal seeds in an aqueous solution. The Pt branches sup...

Nitrogen doped carbon nanocapsules (NCNCs) were synthesized as a non-noble electrocatalyst for the ORR using a simple and efficient route. The NCNCs exhibited higher activity than the commercial Pt/C catalyst, excellent stability, and resistance to methanol oxidation in the oxygen reduction reaction.

Ruthenium-based bimetallic electrocatalysts with non-noble metals such as Ti, Cr, Fe, Co and Pb were synthesized on a porous carbon support sing a chelation process. Rotating ring disk electrode measurements indicated that RuFeNx/C showed the catalytic activity and selectivity toward he four-electron reduction of oxygen to water comparable to those of the conventional Pt/C catalysts. The perfor...

In this report, we describe the preparation and electrochemical characterization of a Pt electrocatalyst, which was synthesized from hexachloroplatinic acid, using the incipient wetness impregnation method. This carbon mesoporous materials (Pt-CMMs) electrocatalyst was used for catalyzing the oxidation of methanol and its oxygen-reduction reaction. The electrocatalytic oxidation of methanol was...

Exploring the role of surface hydrophilicity of non-precious metal N-doped carbon electrocatalysts in electrocatalysis is challenging. Herein we discover an ultra-hydrophilic non-precious carbon electrocatalyst, showing enhanced catalysis efficiency on both gravimetric and areal basis for oxygen reduction reaction due to a high dispersion of active centres.

An array of Pd–W alloys was fabricated, and the electrocatalytic activity of the alloys for the oxygen reduction reaction (ORR) in acidic media was screened by scanning electrochemical microscopy. The Pd0.7W0.3 showed the highest activity for the ORR, close to that for Pd0.8Co0.2 and Pt. A Pd–W electrocatalyst loaded on carbon black was formed by the NaBH4-reduction method, exhibiting high acti...