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Porous N-doped carbon sub-microspheres with PtCu nanoparticles for efficient methanol electro-oxidation

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Abstract

We design and prepare porous N-doped carbon sub-microspheres (Por-N–C-SS) using the phenolic resin sub-microspheres as precursor and potassium hydroxide as pore forming agent by polymerization-carbonization strategy. Pt and Cu ions are impregnated on surface of Por-N–C-SS, and then PtCu/Por-N–C-SS are obtained by a facile reduction process. The as-fabricated Por-N–C-SS exhibits the spherical structure with the diameter size of 200–500 nm. And Por-N–C-SS also possesses high specific surface area of 2222 m2 g−1 and large pore volume of 1.02 cm3 g−1. Benefiting from alloy effect of highly dispersed PtCu and N-doped porous carbon architecture, PtCu/Por-N–C-SS shows excellent electrocatalytic performance toward methanol oxidation reaction with high peak current density (4661 mA cm−2 mg−1 Pt) and large Jf/Jb value (1.18), exceeding commercial Pt/C catalyst in acid media. Furthermore, PtCu/Por-N–C-SS also reveals an outstanding catalytic stability, promoting its practical application in fuel cells.

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Funding

We would like to acknowledge the financial supports from the Natural Science Foundation of Jiangsu Province of China (BK20160982).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. School of Mechanical Engineering, Nanjing University of Science and Technology, Nanjing, 210094, China

    Bingbing Yu

  2. College of Materials Science and Engineering, Nanjing Tech University, Nanjing, 211816, China

    Tianxu Qiu, Hong Zhou & Youlin Liu

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  1. Bingbing Yu
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Correspondence to Youlin Liu.

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Yu, B., Qiu, T., Zhou, H. et al. Porous N-doped carbon sub-microspheres with PtCu nanoparticles for efficient methanol electro-oxidation. Colloid Polym Sci 301, 623–629 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00396-023-05098-x

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