One-pot fabrication of N-doped graphene supported dandelion-like PtRu nanocrystals as efficient and robust electrocatalysts towards formic acid oxidation.

Engineering the architectures of metal nanocatalysts offers a valid approach for the development of electrocatalysts with greatly enhanced performances. Herein, we report the one-pot method to successfully fabricate the N-doped graphene (NG) supported dandelion-like PtRu nanocrystals. Such dandelion-like nanocrystals with different compositions can be readily tuned via the addition of different amounts of RuCl3. By virtue of the large accessible surface active areas, synergistic and electronic effect, as well as the successful introduction of NG, the as-obtained PtRu/NG with optimized compositions display outstandingly high electrocatalytic activity towards formic acid electrooxidation with the mass and specific activities of 1857.4mAmg-1 and 18.3mAcm-2, 6.3 and 3.3 times higher than those of commercial Pt/C, respectively. Moreover, the Pt1Ru1/NG can endure at least 500 cycles with less activity decay, showing a new class of Pt-based electrocatalysts with enhanced performance for fuel cells and beyond.