A Synthetic Route for the Effective Preparation of Metal Alloy Nanoparticles and Their Use as Active Electrocatalysts

By taking advantage of the nonequilibrium synthetic conditions, we used the cathodic corrosion method to prepare a selected number of alloys of which solid-solution alloys do not exist under ambient conditions. To illustrate our findings, we present the preparation at room temperature of PtBi and PtPb alloy nanoparticles with various compositions. These alloys have shown benchmark mass activity and durability with respect to formic acid oxidation. The improvement in the catalytic activity is explained on the basis of the composition of the metal alloys, the reduced particle size, and, quite importantly, the level of cleanliness of the catalyst obtained by this method.