Graphene oxide-assisted facile synthesis of platinum–tellurium nanocubes with enhanced catalytic activity for formic acid electro-oxidation

In order to obtain a loaded Pt-based catalyst with enhanced high activity and stability towards formic acid electro-oxidation (FAO), PtTe nanoparticles loaded on graphene oxide (GO) were fabricated by a facile and scalable method. XRD and HRTEM results show that the morphology of PtTe particles could be affected by the additive amount of GO and Te. It is observed that the supported PtTe particles are cubic. The XPS results show the change in the Pt electronic structure after the incorporation of Te, which impedes the chemisorption of the CO intermediate and promotes the dehydrogenation pathway of FAO. By electrochemical analysis, the performance towards FAO is greatly enhanced. The mass activity of PtTe/GO-67 is 2165.53\,{\rm{mA}}\,{{\rm{mg}}}_{{\rm{Pt}}}^{-1} at 0.45 V (versus SCE), which is 11.5 times as high as that of Pt/C (188.44\,{\rm{mA}}\,{{\rm{mg}}}_{{\rm{Pt}}}^{-1}). The incorporation of Te atoms and the content of GO are two major parameters for tuning the crystal structure and morphology and enhancing catalytic activity.