Self-standing hollow porous AuPt nanospheres and their enhanced electrocatalytic performance

In this paper, we present a template method to fabricate AuPt hollow nanospheres by depositing Au inner layer and dendritic Pt outer layer onto PS template. The as-prepared AuPt hollow nanospheres can form self-standing hollow nanostructures under thermal treatment which is confirmed by small-angle X-ray scattering results. We believe that the self-standing structural features of them result from different thermal stability of Au and Pt elements. The small-angle X-ray diffraction measurements and X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy of binding energies certify the existing interaction between Au and Pt. It is suggested that Pt mole contents of AuPt hollow nanospheres can be varied by changing H₂PtCl₄ concentration during chemical deposition process. The methanol electrochemical oxidation reaction indicates these as-prepared AuPt hollow nanospheres possessing excellent potential applications on catalysts. Moreover, synthesis of multilayer hollow porous nanospheres such as Pt@Au@Pt proves that our method greatly enriches the species of the self-standing, hollow and porous functional nanomaterials.