Construction of Ternary PtRuPd Alloy Supported on Carbon Nanotubes for Concentrated Methanol Oxidation

Graphical A metal doped strategy was developed via a facile one-step solvent reduction approach, for reducing Pt, Ru and Pd metal ions supported on carbon nanotubes and preparing ternary metal alloy nanoparticles supported on carbon nanotubes (CNTs) electrocatalyst (PtRuPd@CNT). Such a PtRuPd@CNT ternary-alloy catalyst exhibits a superior concentrated methanol oxidation reaction performance including catalytic activity, stability and CO-tolerance. Due to the complex reaction process involving six-electron transfer, high overpotential and slow kinetic rate of methanol oxidation, the development process of direct methanol fuel cells (DMFC) has been hampered. Herein, a simple one-step solvent reduction approach was employed to simultaneously reduce metal ions supported on carbon nanotubes and prepared ternary metal alloy nanoparticles supported on carbon nanotubes electrocatalyst (PtRuPd@CNT). Compared with PtRu@CNT binary metal catalyst, the as-prepared PtRuPd@CNT ternary metal catalyst displayed more outstanding methanol oxidation reaction (MOR) catalytic performance and good CO anti-poisoning ability. In the case of using 8 M methanol, the MOR performance of PtRuPd@CNT was 1.8 times better than the PtRu@CNT electrocatalyst. The addition of the Pd atom regulates the surface electronic structure of PtRu alloy, and the strong electronic interaction enhances the MOR activity of the PtRu@CNT catalyst. Furthermore, the addition of the Pd atom in the PtRuPd@CNT electrocatalyst also diminishes adsorption of CO intermediate species on the Pt surface, boosting the CO anti-poisoning ability of the catalyst and improving the stability. Therefore, the PtRuPd@CNT electrocatalyst incorporating the Pd atoms could actualize the practical application prospect as an efficient concentrated DMFC anode catalyst.