A facile wet chemical approach was developed to prepare ultralong PtIrTe nanotubes (NTs) using Te nanowires (NWs) as template. These PtIrTe NTs were made up of Pt nanodendrites uniformly arrayed on the surface of IrTe NTs and interweaved with each other to nanopores. Their morphology, structure, and composition were investigated by transition electron microscopy, X-ray powder diffraction, and X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy. As expected, these PtIrTe NTs catalysts show a larger surface area, a stronger CO tolerance, and a higher catalytic activity toward electrochemical oxidation of methanol relative to the commercial Pt catalysts due to the 1D porous core-shell structure and the modification of the electronic effect by Ir.
Keywords: core−shell; electrocatalysis; methanol oxidation; nanotube.