Pt Nanowires on Monolayered Graphene Oxide for Electrocatalytic Oxidation of Methanol

How to improve the catalytic performance of platinum (Pt) catalysts for direct methanol fuel cells (DMFCs) has attracted extensive attention. Herein, by using monolayer graphene oxide (GO) as the support, composite microspheres composed of intertwined Pt nanowires and GO (PtNW-GO) were synthesized at room temperature by a surfactant-free chemical reduction method. Electrocatalytic methanol oxidation reaction (MOR) tests showed that, compared with commercial Pt-C, PtNW-GO have a higher MOR activity (which is about 3 times that of commercial Pt-C), lower onset potential, better anti-CO toxicity, and better durability. The better electrocatalytic performance is attributed to the nanowire morphology of Pt, the specific properties of reduced GO, the intertwined structure of GO and Pt, and the synergistic effect between GO and Pt. This work provides an idea for the synthesis of efficient Pt-based composite catalysts for DMFC application.