Large-Scale Fabrication of Hollow Pt3Al Nanoboxes and Their Electrocatalytic Performance for Hydrogen Evolution Reaction

Hollow structuring and alloying have been known to be effective methods to improve physicochemical properties and create new functionalities of nanomaterials. However, it is technically difficult to fabricate hollow alloyed intermetallic compound nanostructures, which are emerging as promising electrocatalysts for water splitting, in a controllable and scalable manner using current wet chemical routes. Here, we report a simple method allowing for large-scale fabrication of hollow Pt3Al nanoparticles using a melt-spinning and subsequent self-templating etching route. We demonstrate that upon etching, both microstructure and phase composition changed, leading to the transformation of Al-rich PtAl6 intermetallic compound ribbons to interconnected hollow nanoparticles of Pt-rich Pt3Al with sizes varying from 4 to 22 nm. The electrochemical measurement shows that the hollow Pt3Al intermetallic nanoparticles have better electrocatalytic activity and catalytic stability than commercial Pt/C catalysts for the hyd...