High performance methanol oxidation reaction (MOR) catalysts are critical to the performance of attractive, direct methanol fuel cells. Here, we use surface controlled PtNi alloy nanoparticles as model catalysts to study the MOR mechanism and give further guidance to the design of new high performance MOR catalysts. The enhanced MOR activity of PtNi alloy was mainly attributed to the enhanced OH adsorption owing to surface Ni sites. This suggests that the MOR undergoes the Langmuir–Hinshelwood mechanism, whereby adsorbed CO is removed with the assistance of adsorbed OH. Within the PtNi catalyst, Pt provides methanol adsorption sites (in which methanol is converted to adsorbed CO) and Ni provides OH adsorption sites. The optimized Pt–Ni ratio for MOR was found to be 1:1. This suggests that bifunctional catalysts with both CO and OH adsorption sites can lead to highly active MOR catalysts.

中文翻译：

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通过在铂纳米颗粒上引入表面镍来促进甲醇氧化催化活性

高性能甲醇氧化反应（MOR）催化剂对于吸引人的直接甲醇燃料电池的性能至关重要。在这里，我们使用表面控制的PtNi合金纳米粒子作为模型催化剂来研究MOR机理，并为新型高性能MOR催化剂的设计提供进一步指导。PtNi合金的MOR活性增强主要归因于表面Ni部位导致的OH吸附增强。这表明MOR经历了Langmuir-Hinshelwood机理，从而在吸附的OH的帮助下去除了吸附的CO。在PtNi催化剂中，Pt提供了甲醇吸附位点（其中甲醇转化为吸附的CO），而Ni提供了OH吸附位点。发现MOR的最佳Pt-Ni比为1：1。