Synthesis of octopus-tentacle-like Cu nanowire-Ag nanocrystals heterostructures and their enhanced electrocatalytic performance for oxygen reduction reaction

In this article, the novel octopus-tentacle-like Cu nanowire-Ag nanocrystals heterostructures have been fabricated in solution phase via heterogeneous nucleation and growth of Ag nanocrystals on presynthesized Cu nanowires. The growth environment and dynamic factors of Ag nanocrystals play an important role for formation of such heterostructures. Combined the physical constants of Cu and Ag with a series of control experiments, the epitaxial growth means of Ag nanocrystals on Cu nanowire is found to abide by "layer-plus-island" (Stranski-Krastanow) mode. Because of the presence of multiple junctions and strong synergistic effect of their constituents, the obtained heterostructures exhibit greatly enhanced electrocatalytic performance toward oxygen reduction reaction compared with that of pure Ag nanocrystals, Cu nanowires, and mechanically mixed dual components as well as recently reported some non-Pt materials, which can be served as an alternative cathodic electrocatalyst to apply in alkaline fuel cells. Moreover, our method can be extended to fabricate octopus-tentacle-like Cu nanowire-Au nanocrystals and Cu nanowire-Pd nanocrystals heterostructures.