Structure-induced enhancement in electrooxidation of trimetallic FePtAu nanoparticles

Using FePtAu nanoparticles (NPs) as an example, this Communication demonstrates a new structure-control strategy to tune and optimize NP catalysis. The presence of Au in FePtAu facilitates FePt structure transformation from chemically disordered face-centered cubic (fcc) structure to chemically ordered face-centered tetragonal (fct) structure, and further promotes formic acid oxidation reaction (FAOR). The fct-FePtAu NPs have mass activity as high as 2809.9 mA/mg Pt and retain 92.5% of this activity after a 13 h stability test. They become the most efficient NP catalyst ever reported for FAOR. This structure-control strategy can be extended to other multimetallic NP systems, providing a general approach to advanced NP catalysts with desired activity and durability control for practical applications.