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The design of high-performance electrocatalysts for the electrooxidation of liquid fuel is highly desirable for the commercial development of fuel cells. Engineering the nanocatalysts with high surface active areas has been regarded as one of the most efficient approach to obtain the high-performance electrocatalysts. For this reason, we herein demonstrated a facile ultrasonic-assisted synthetic method to successfully fabricate the trimetallic PtAuRu nanostructures with highly porous features and perpendicular pore channels. By virtue of the highly porous properties and abundant pore channels, the resulted PtAuRu nanocrystals (PtAuRu NCs) with the optimized atomic ratio exhibit extremely high electrocatalytic performances toward formic acid oxidation with the mass and specific activities of 1044.1 mA mg −1 and 14.5 mA cm −2 , 4.1 and 2.2 times higher than those of commercial Pt/C, respectively. Our tremendous efforts in this work can not only provide a facile strategy for the preparation of excellent electrocatalysts but also greatly accelerate the commercial development of fuel cells and beyond. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper reports a facile electrochemical approach for synthesizing the Pd nano-leaves supported on reduced graphene oxide (RGO) modified glassy carbon electrode (GCE). The as-synthesized Pd nano-leaves/RGO/GCE catalyst has been characterized by X-ray diffraction (XRD) and scanning electron microscope (SEM). SEM images show that a large number of Pd nano-leaves are uniformly deposited on the surface of RGO. Electrochemical measurements indicate that the as-synthesized Pd nano-leaves/RGO/GCE catalyst displays higher electrocatalytic activity and stronger poisoning-tolerance towards formic acid oxidation reaction as compared to the Pd nano-leaves/GCE and commercial Pd/C/GCE catalysts. This work explores a novel approach for the formation of nano-leaves structure, which can provide its important application in fuel cells. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A promising electrochemical sensor, Pt nanoparticles decorated on the surface of reduced graphene oxide (RGO) sheets were facilely synthesized by a one-pot hydrothermal method. The morphology and composition of as-prepared Pt–RGO composites have been characterized by transmission electron microscopy (TEM), energy dispersive X-ray spectroscopy (EDX), X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS), Raman spectroscopy and X-ray diffraction (XRD). It is found that Pt nanoparticles with ca. 4.81 ± 1.54 nm in diameter were evenly distributed on the surface of RGO sheets. The cyclic voltammetry shows that Pt–RGO nanocomposite has a higher electron transfer rate and remarkable increase electrochemical activity toward the oxidation of nitrite. The amperometry reveals that the Pt–RGO modified electrode exists a good linear relationship between peak current and concentration of nitrite with a low detection limit of 0.1 μM and high sensitivity of 496.4 μA mM −1 . Moreover, the as-synthesized Pt–RGO electrode display a fast amperometric response within 4 s. Compared to the bare Pt nanoparticles or the RGO modified glassy carbon (GC) electrode, the as-synthesized Pt–RGO nanocomposite shows a well reproducibility, stability and anti-interference electrocatalytic performance toward nitrite sensing. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]