Highly efficient ethylene glycol electrocatalytic oxidation based on bimetallic PtNi on 2D molybdenum disulfide/reduced graphene oxide nanosheets.

In this paper, a two-dimensional (2D) hybrid material of molybdenum disulfide (MoS2)/reduced graphene oxide (RGO) is facilely synthesized and used as an ideal support for the deposition of Pt nanoparticles. The as-prepared Pt/MoS2/RGO composites are further worked as electrocatalysts towards ethylene glycol oxidation reaction (EGOR). In addition, when alloying with Ni, the composite shows obvious enhancement in electrocatalytic performance for EGOR. Specifically, the optimized molar ratio of Pt to Ni is 3:1, namely Pt3Ni/MoS2/RGO performs the strongest current density of 2062 mA mg-1Pt, which is 11.1, 5.80 and 2.40 times higher than those of Pt, Pt3Ni and Pt/MoS2/RGO electrodes, respectively. The systematically electrochemical measurements indicate that the largely promoted electrocatalytic performances of Pt3Ni/MoS2/RGO are mainly attributed to the synergistic effect of Ni and Pt, and 2D sheets of MoS2/RGO. This excellent performance indicates that the reported electrocatalytic material could be an efficient catalyst for the application in direct ethylene glycol fuel cell and beyond.