Designer composite materials fabricated from platinum and rutheniumnanoparticles

Abstract

This paper describes a new strategy for synthesizing electrocatalytically active bimetallic Pt and Ru nanoparticle (NP) composite films by combining Pt and Ru NP films. Each metal NP film could be generated at the water/oil interface and its subsequent transfer to conducting substrates allowed one to rationally design the contact ratio between Pt and Ru NPs. Significantly, each metal NP size could be predetermined by controlling the synthetic conditions, and the interparticle contact between Pt and Ru NPs could be tuned by altering the transfer order. The electrocatalytic activity of the resulting NP composite films toward methanol was investigated as a function of Pt and Ru NP contact ratios. It was found that the maximum contact between Pt and Ru NPs contributes to the minimization of CO poisoning on Pt surfaces, which leads to the maximum electrocatalytic activity toward methanol electrooxidation.