Facile room-temperature fabrication of a silver–platinum nanocoral catalyst towards hydrogen evolution and methanol electro-oxidation

Abstract

With rising environmental problems, hydrogen produced from electrolyzing water has emerged as the most sustainable and clean energy source to replace fossil fuels in a variety of applications. Although platinum (Pt) is the most efficient catalyst towards the hydrogen evolution reaction (HER), its high cost is a large limitation. Herein, we report a simple self-growth-assisted reduction route for fabricating a coral-like dendritic AgPt alloy nanocatalyst on a carbon support to lower Pt utilization and enhance the electrocatalytic performance. Due to its unique morphological features and alloy nature, the AgPt nanocoral (NCs)/C catalyst with 50 at% Ag shows excellent HER performance in acidic electrolyte with an extremely low overpotential of 16.61 mV at 10 mA cm⁻² and a small Tafel slope of 19.05 mV dec⁻¹, which are improved compared to those of a carbon-supported Pt (E-TEK) catalyst. In addition, the AgPt NCs/C catalyst exhibits enhanced reaction kinetics and superior CO-poisoning resistance for the methanol oxidation process. This study not only describes the design of a cost-effective HER catalyst but also provides a robust catalyst for energy conversion technologies.