The sulfur-anchored Joule heating synthesis of ultrasmall nanoalloys to enhance oxygen electroreduction

Abstract

Pt-based alloys have been recognized as appealing candidates for use in the oxygen reduction reaction, yet they still suffer from serious particle sintering and poor size uniformity. Here, we developed a sulfur-anchored Joule heating strategy to prepare a PtCo alloy with an average particle size of only 2.9 nm. The strong interaction between metal and S favored the stabilization of S onto the carbon support, contributing to the uniform distribution of PtCo nanoparticles. The obtained PtCo nanoparticles exhibited a half-wave potential of 0.941 V vs. RHE, significantly higher than commercial Pt/C.