Facile synthesis of three-dimensional dendritic platinum nanoelectrocatalyst

Design and synthesis of three-dimensional (3D) dendritic platinum nanostructures (DPNs), with its advantages of high surface area, low density, and reduced materials costs represent a highly interesting class of materials. In this paper, a very simple and efficient wet chemical route to straightforward synthesis of well-dispersed 3D DPNs at high yield was proposed, which was carried out by simply mixing K₂PtCl₄ aqueous solution and poly(vinyl pyrrolidone) (PVP) at a constant 30 °C for 1 h in the presence of ascorbic acid (AA). As-prepared 3D DPNs were highly porous, selfsupporting nanostructures that possessed high surface area and supply enough absorption sites for reactant molecules and were shown to be active as nanoelectrocatalyst for the reduction of dioxygen and oxidation of methanol.