Optimizing the Size of Rhodium Nanoparticles to Accelerate Alkaline Methanol Oxidation Reaction

Abstract Effectively designing highly efficient and durable electrocatalysts toward the alkaline methanol oxidation reaction (MOR) is of significance for the development of commercial direct methanol fuel cells. However, the choice of Pt‐free catalysts is highly pursued to overcome the relatively low activity and stability of Pt nanomaterials for the MOR. In this issue, Rhodium (Rh) nanoparticles dispersed on carbon support with controllable sizes are prepared by a versatile solvothermal synthesis via the CoP bridge to act as a promising candidate alternative to Pt. The Rh nanoparticles exhibited a size effect for the MOR, and the one with the average size of ≈2.83 nm showed exceptional mass activity of 609 mA mg −1 due to the fast electronic transfer and efficient active surface area, far surpassing most of the reported Rh‐based catalysts. In addition, this Rh catalyst displayed significantly enhanced anti‐CO poison ability compared to commercial Pt/C.