Highly Catalytic Single-Crystal Dendritic Pt Nanostructures Supported on Carbon Nanotubes

Herein we describe a one-step method for the preparation of single-crystal, dendritic Pt nanoparticles with no need of organic solvents, templates, or seeded growth. It is shown that Pt nanoparticles with two different shapes—spherical or dendritic—can be efficiently supported onto the sidewalls of carbon nanotubes. Notably, the supported dendritic Pt nanostructrures yield unprecedented catalytic activity, evidenced through the lowest activation energy within an electron-transfer reaction as compared with those reported in the literature for Pt nanostructures.