Pt-Ni-Ru Nanoframes as a Bifunctional Catalyst for MOR and HER

Platinum catalysts exhibit outstanding performance in clean energy applications, such as water splitting and fuel cells. Unfortunately, their widespread use is limited by the scarcity and high price of Pt. To overcome these challenges, Pt-alloy catalysts have been extensively studied with the aim to reduce Pt content while improving the catalytic performance. On the other hand, nanoframes (NFs) have been proven to be effective catalytic platforms because of the large surface area generated by their fully open structure. In this report, we generated ternary alloy NFs by introducing Ru into Pt-Ni nanocubes. These nanocubes showed a phase segregation feature where Pt was segregated on the edges and diagonals, and Ni was distributed evenly. The solid cubes were hollowed out through galvanic replacement between Ru³⁺ and the segregated Ni component. Ru deposited on the edges because of the Kirkendall effect and alloyed with the segregated Pt, forming the framework. These Pt-Ni-Ru NFs were applied to the methanol oxidation reaction (MOR) and hydrogen evolution reaction (HER), showing boosted performance for both applications. These findings not only suggest the Pt-Ni-Ru ternary alloy NFs as a bifunctional catalyst but also provide insight for developing improved storage and conversion systems for clean energy.