A general carbon monoxide-assisted strategy for synthesizing one-nanometer-thick Pt-based nanowires as effective electrocatalysts.

To balance the Pt utilization and the durability is the key issue for developing Pt-based oxygen reduction reaction (ORR) catalysts, and constructing ultrathin one-dimensional (1D) structure provides a practical solution. Here, a facile CO-assisted strategy has been proposed for synthesizing PtFe nanowires (NWs) with an ultrathin diameter of one-nanometer and high aspect ratio for the first time, which demonstrates great universality and can be extended to a ternary system. The NWs are found to grow following an oriented attachment mechanism facilitated by the preferential adsorption and reducibility of CO. Based on composition regulation, PtFe NWs and PtFeCo NWs exhibit superior catalytic performance, of which the electrochemical active surface areas are extremely high, achieving 1.5 folds of that of Pt/C catalyst. Benefiting from the synergistic effect endowed by alloying and the ultrathin anisotropic structure, PtFe NWs and PtFeCo NWs show remarkable mass activity of 0.57 and 0.58 A mg, respectively, and the durability also meet the 2020 standard of DOE, holding great application potential.