Pt₃Sn nanoparticles enriched with SnO₂/Pt₃Sn interfaces for highly efficient alcohol electrooxidation

Pt₃Sn nanoparticles (NPs) enriched with Pt₃Sn/ultra-small SnO₂ interfaces (Pt₃Sn@u-SnO₂/NG) were synthesized through a thermal treatment of Pt₂Sn/NG in a H₂ atmosphere, followed by annealing under H₂ and air conditions. The unique structure of Pt₃Sn NPs enriched with Pt₃Sn/SnO₂ interfaces was observed on the Pt₃Sn@u-SnO₂/NG catalyst based on HRTEM. The optimized Pt₃Sn@u-SnO₂/NG catalyst achieves high catalytic activity with an ethanol oxidation reaction (EOR) activity of 366 mA mg_Pt ^-1 and a methanol oxidation reaction (MOR) activity of 503 mA mg_Pt ^-1 at the potential of 0.7 V, which are eight-fold and five-fold higher than those for the commercial Pt/C catalyst (44 and 99 mA mg_Pt ^-1, respectively). The Pt₃Sn@u-SnO₂/NG catalyst is found to be 3 times more stable and have higher CO tolerance than Pt/C. The outstanding performance of the Pt₃Sn@u-SnO₂/NG catalyst should be ascribed to the synergetic effect induced by the unique structure of Pt₃Sn NPs enriched with Pt₃Sn/SnO₂ interfaces. The synergetic effect between Pt₃Sn NPs and ultra-small SnO₂ increases the performance for alcohol oxidation because the Sn in both Pt₃Sn and SnO₂ favors the removal of CO_ads on the nearby Pt by providing OH_ads species at low potentials. The present work suggests that the Pt₃Sn@u-SnO₂ is indeed a unique kind of efficient electrocatalyst for alcohol electrooxidation.