Increased utilization and mass activity of PtRu on reduced graphene oxide by heat treatment of its aerogel followed by composite with nanomaterials

[Display omitted] •PtRu/RGOA improved the PtRu utilization compared to that of PtRu/RGO.•RGOA contained fewer oxygen functional groups, especially the epoxy groups.•A composite of the PtRu/RGOA with nanoparticles significantly increased the PtRu utilization.•Among the nanoparticles for the composite, Ti4O7 resulted in the highest ECSA and mass activity. The method to increase PtRu utilization and its catalytic activity of PtRu nanoparticles supported on reduced graphene oxide (RGO) by avoiding its restacking was proposed with the aim of developing an active catalyst for a direct methanol fuel cell. The heat treatment at 200 °C of the GO aerogel (GOA) prepared by freeze drying of GO ice was introduced to weaken the attractive force of the hydrogen bonding between the GO sheets followed by the composite with the nanoparticles, i.e., ketjenblack (KB), TiO2 and Ti4O7, at different weight ratios. The catalyst supported on the heat-treated GOA (RGOA), PtRu/RGOA, improved the PtRu utilization to some extent and also increased the ECSA and mass activity compared to that of PtRu/RGO. RGOA had fewer oxygen functional groups, especially the epoxy groups. Due to the treatment and composite, the PtRu utilization was increased from 66.5% for PtRu/RGO to 128.6 % for PtRu/RGOA + Ti4O7 (4:1) and the mass activity was improved from 50.7 A/g-PtRu for PtRu/RGO to 130.5 A/g-PtRu for PtRu/RGOA + Ti4O7 (1:1). The Ti4O7 nanoparticles showed the best catalytic performance for the composite suggesting that the strong interaction between Ti4O7 and the Pt nanoparticles was effective due to its high electronic conductivity.