Cobalt oxyhydroxide and carbon dots modified by platinum as superior electrocatalyst for methanol oxidation

The engineering of electrocatalysts with high performance for methanol oxidation reaction (MOR) is of great urgency for the development of direct methanol fuel cells (DMFCs). Here, we designed and fabricated cobalt oxyhydroxide and carbon dots modified by platinum (Pt-CoOOH-CDs/C) hybrids with low content of Pt (13 wt %) as electrocatalyst, which exhibit high activity (856.3 mAmg(Pr)(-1)), stability (3 h) and better anti-poisoning ability for MOR. The Pt-CoOOH-CDs/C was synthesized by precipitate method followed with photochemical deposition. In the catalytic system, the Pt nanoparticles serve as the active center toward MOR, CoOOH-CDs use as the co-catalyst to oxidize CO-like poisonous species to CO2 on neighbouring Pt sites, and the cost-efficient carbon black enhances the conductivity for the system. The cost-efficient Pt-CoOOH-CDs/C system with improved kinetics for anodic methanol oxidation has promising application in alkaline DMFCs.