Novel hollow PtRu nanospheres supported on multi-walled carbon nanotube for methanol electrooxidation

A multi-walled carbon nanotube supported hollow PtRu nanosphere electrocatalysts was prepared at room temperature in a homogeneous solution employing cobalt metal nanoparticles as sacrificial templates. Transmission electron micrograph (TEM) measurements showed that carbon nanotube supported PtRu nanospheres were coreless and composed of discrete PtRu nanoparticles with the crystallite size of about 2.1 nm. X-ray diffraction (XRD) results showed that the hollow PtRu nanospheres had a face-centered cubic structure. Electrochemical measurements demonstrated that the carbon nanotube supported hollow PtRu nanosphere electrocatalysts exhibited enhanced electrocatalytic performance for methanol oxidation compared with carbon nanotube supported solid PtRu nanoparticles and commercial E-TEK PtRu/C (20 wt%) catalysts, which is crucial for anode electrocatalysis in direct methanol fuel cells (DMFCs).