One-Pot Synthesis of Platinum Nanodendrites with Enhanced Catalytic Performance for Methanol Oxidation Reaction

Abstract

Controlling the synthesis of noble metal nanostructures with highly branched morphology to obtain speci¯c physical and chemical properties has attracted much attention. This paper reports the synthesis of 3D Pt nanodendrites with controlled architectures (multibranched) by a simple one-pot hydrothermal reaction in the presence of fructose. At high reaction temperature, fructose not only acts as a reducing agent, but also forms a hydrothermal carbon, which, as a capping agent, is absorbed on the surface of metal nanocrystals and induces the anisotropic growth of Pt nanodendrites. The prepared Pt nanodendrites are highly porous, and have self-supported nanoarchitectures with a high surface area and a number of absorption sites for reactant molecules. The Pt nanodendrites exhibit a higher electrocatalytic activity and stability than commercial Pt/C for methanol oxidation reaction.