Bimetallic nanoparticles (NPs) have emerged as an important class of catalysts. In many cases, bimetallic alloy NPs have higher catalytic efficiencies than their monometallic counterparts, owing to strong synergy between the metals. In this Review, we survey the research progress on the synergistic effect of bimetallic alloy NPs for catalytic reactions related to fuel cells, such as the electrochemical oxidation of MeOH, EtOH, and formic acid, CO oxidation, the oxygen‐reduction reaction, and the dehydrogenation of ammonia borane, formic acid, hydrous hydrazine, hydrazine borane, etc. In addition, the use of synergistic catalysis in some other important reactions has also been reviewed. Recent developments in synergistic catalysis over bimetallic alloy NPs will provide access to a variety of low‐cost and high‐performance catalysts for laboratory and industrial applications within the next few years.
Formic acid, the simplest carboxylic acid, could serve as one of the better fuels for portable devices, vehicles and other energy-related applications in the future.
Noble-metal-free nickel-iron alloy nanoparticles exhibit excellent catalytic performance for the complete decomposition of hydrous hydrazine, for which the NiFe nanocatalyst, with equimolar compositions of Ni and Fe, shows 100% hydrogen selectivity in basic solution (0.5 M NaOH) at 343 K. The development of low-cost and high-performance catalysts may encourage the effective application of hydrous hydrazine as a promising hydrogen storage material.
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