Facile preparation of reduced graphene oxide supported PtNi alloyed nanosnowflakes with high catalytic activity

A facile hydrothermal strategy was designed for the preparation of alloyed PtNi nanosnowflakes supported on reduced graphene oxide (PtNi nanosnowflakes/RGO), with the assistance of N,N-dimethylformamide (DMF) as the solvent and reductant, and ethylenediamine as the surfactant and capping agent. The as-obtained nanocomposites were mainly characterized by transmission electron microscopy (TEM), X-ray diffraction (XRD), X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) and Raman spectroscopy, which showed enhanced catalytic activity and better stability over commercial Pt/C (10 wt%) in the catalytic reduction of p-nitrophenol to p-aminophenol.