One-step synthesis of trimetallic Pt-Pd-Ru nanodendrites as highly active electrocatalystsElectronic supplementary information (ESI) available. See DOI: 10.1039/c5ra01981h

Precise control over composition and structure is highly important for designing highly active nanostructured electrocatalysts. Herein, we report a one-step strategy to directly synthesize trimetallic Pt-Pd-Ru nanodendrites in an aqueous solution at room temperature. These newly designed nanodendrites exhibit superior catalytic activities for both methanol oxidation reaction (MOR) and oxygen reduction reaction (ORR) in comparison with bimetallic Pt-Pd nanoflowers and commercially available Pt/C catalysts. Trimetallic Pt-Pd-Ru nanodendrites synthesized by a one-step route are highly active electrocatalysts for methanol oxidation reaction and oxygen reduction reaction.