Role of composition and texture on bifunctional catalytic performance of extruded Au–Cu alloys

• Published in: RSC advances Vol. 12; no. 35; pp. 22492 - 22502
• Main Authors: Shen, Kechang, Gong, Qingtao, Zhang, Hao, Li, Kangqiang, Sun, Zhongyu, Li, Guihua, Hu, Xin, Liu, Lu, Wang, Weimin
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Cambridge Royal Society of Chemistry 10.08.2022; The Royal Society of Chemistry
• Subjects: Catalytic activity; Chemistry; Copper; Extrusion; Gold; Gold base alloys; Grain boundaries; Intermetallic compounds; Microhardness; Oxidation; Plastic deformation; Preferred orientation; Solid solutions; Solution strengthening; Synergistic effect
• ISSN: 2046-2069; 2046-2069
• DOI: 10.1039/d2ra03438g

The catalytic activity of Au 2 Cu and AuCu samples for the electro-oxidation of CH 3 OH and HCOOH, together with their structure and micro-hardness were investigated using various techniques. The addition of Cu can improve the micro-hardness of samples, which is ascribed to the solid solution strengthening effect. The Schmid factor and low angle grain boundary fraction confirm the difference of plastic deformation ability for samples, being consistent with hardness results. The Au–Cu samples exhibit good bifunctional catalytic performance due to the synergistic effect between Au and Cu. In addition, the Au 2 Cu sample exhibits a higher catalytic activity than the AuCu sample, suggesting that appropriate preferred orientation plays a key role in the improvement of catalytic activities of Au based catalysts.