Synthesis of hollow platinum-palladium nanospheres with a dendritic shell as efficient electrocatalysts for methanol oxidation

Engineering the size, composition, and morphology of platinum-based nanomaterials can provide a great opportunity to improve the utilization efficiency of electrocatalysts and reinforce their electrochemical performances. Herein, three-dimensional platinum-palladium hollow nanospheres with a dendritic shell (PtPd-HNSs) are successfully fabricated through a facile and economic route, during which SiO2 microspheres act as the hard template for the globular cavity, whereas the triblock copolymer F127 contributes to the formation of the dendritic shell. In contrast with platinum hollow nanospheres (Pt-HNSs) and commercial platinum on carbon (Pt/C) catalyst, the novel architecture shows a remarkable activity and durability toward the methanol oxidation reaction (MOR) owing to the coupled merits of bimetallic nanodendrites and a hollow interior. As a proof of concept, this strategy is also extended to trimetallic gold-palladium-platinum hollow nanospheres (AuPdPt-HNSs), which paves the way towards the controlled synthesis of other bi- or multimetallic platinum-based hollow electrocatalysts