The one-pot synthesis of CuNi nanoparticles with a Ni-rich surface for the electrocatalytic methanol oxidation reaction

Fuel cell is one of the most promising renewable energy strategies but still suffers from many limitations. The high mass enthalpy in hydrogen fuel comes at the inconvenience and risk in storage, transportation and utilization while the high performance of Pt catalyst in commercial fuel cell are limited by the high cost, low earth abundance and poor stability imposed by CO intermediate poisoning. To circumvent the dilemma, direct methanol fuel cells (DMFC) was developed by using methanol as the fuel and Ni acts as the anode catalyst. Thanks to the condensed form of the fuel, DMFC is considered the most promising fuel-cell solution for portable electronic devices. Usually, other elements have to be introduced into Ni-based catalysts and modify the active sites to provide a better alternative to pristine Ni metal in terms of activity and stability. In this study, we provides a mild synthetic method for the preparation of CuNi alloy nanoparticles. The proper alloying ratio provides suitable modification of the electronic structure of Ni which promotes the MOR catalytic reaction on the NiCu alloy. The NiCu alloy catalyst exhibits a mass current density of 1028 mA mgmetal-1 for MOR at 1.55 V (vs. RHE), which is among the best in all the Ni-based catalysts prepared similarly.