Facile solvothermal synthesis of PtCo lamellar nanoflowers as an efficient catalyst for oxygen reduction and methanol oxidation reactions.

The research for highly efficient and stable electrocatalysts in fuel cells has attracted substantial interest. Herein, bimetallic alloyed PtCo lamellar nanoflowers (LNFs) with abundant active sites were obtained by a one-pot solvothermal method, where cetyltrimethylammonium chloride (CTAC) and 1-nitroso-2-naphthol (1-N-2-N) served as co-structure-directors, while oleylamine (OAm) as the solvent and reducing agent. The fabricated PtCo LNFs exhibited the higher mass activity (MA, 128.29 mA mg) for oxygen reduction reaction (ORR) than those of home-made PtCo nanodendrites (NDs), PtCo NDs and commercial Pt black with the values of 39.46, 49.42 and 22.91 mA mg, respectively. Meanwhile, the MA (666.23 mA mg) and specific activity (SA, 2.51 mA cm) of the constructed PtCo LNFs for methanol oxidation reaction (MOR) are superior than those of PtCo NDs (213.91 mA mg, 1.99 mA cm), PtCo NDs (210.09 mA mg, 1.12 mA cm) and Pt black (57.03 mA mg, 0.25 mA cm). Also, the PtCo LNFs catalyst exhibited the best durable ability relative to the references. This work demonstrates that the developed strategy provides a facile platform for synthesis of high-performance, low-cost and robust catalysts in practical catalysis, energy storage and conversion.