Controlled Synthesis of Pt–Pd Nanoparticle Chains with High Electrocatalytic Activity Based on Insulin Amyloid Fibrils

Abstract

Here, we present a simple and novel method based on using insulin amyloid fibrils (INSAFs) as sacrificial templates for the construction of Pt–Pd nanoparticle chains (Pt–PdNPCs) under mild conditions. By incubating INSAFs in metal salt solution and then reduction, Pt–Pd nanoparticles with an uniform particle size of around 2.5[Formula: see text]nm nucleated and grew along the axial direction of INSAFs, and thus formed a long chain structure with length up to several micrometers. The as-prepared Pt–PdNPCs exhibit an improved catalytic activity for low-temperature CO and methanol oxidation and possess greater CO tolerance compared with the commercial Pt/C catalyst, which makes them promising for a variety of possible catalytic applications.