Trimetallic Au@PdPt porous core-shell structured nanowires for oxygen reduction electrocatalysis

[Display omitted] •Au@PdPt porous nanowires were prepared via a two-step approach.•The catalysts possess core-shell structure and trimetallic composition effect.•The catalysts exhibit excellent performance for oxygen reduction reaction.•The strategy provides a simple route for preparing porous core-shell nanowires. The design of porous one-dimensional (1D) Pt-based nanoarchitectures is significant for fuel cells. The incorporation of Au into Pt-based electrocatalysts is an efficient strategy to enhance its electrocatalytic performance. In this work, we propose a facile strategy to synthesize Au@PdPt porous nanowire architecture with an Au nanowire (Au NW) as the core and a porous PdPt surface as the shell (Au@PdPt pNWs). 1D core-shell nanoarchitectures with porous surface provide sufficient active sites and rich reactant transfer channels for O2 adsorption and activation. Compared with PdPt mesoporous nanoparticles and commercial Pt/C catalyst, the Au@PdPt pNWs show superior catalytic performance for electrocatalytic oxygen reduction reaction. The present synthetic strategy can be widely used for the preparation of porous core-shell structured metallic nanowires for various electrocatalytic applications.