Patent ID: 7632779

Claim:
A method for preparing a catalyst for a direct formic acid fuel cell comprising the steps of: a) providing a gold-silver alloy article comprising 10% to 60% gold (wt %) and 40% to 90% silver (wt %) and said article having a length of 0.1 to 1000 cm, a width of 0.1 to 100 cm, and a thickness of 0.01 to 1000 μm; b) removing said silver from said gold-silver alloy article by immersing said gold-silver alloy article in a de-alloying solution comprising 0.1 to 70% HNO 3 (wt %) for a time period of between 1 s to 100 min at a temperature of 0 to 50° C. forming a nanoporous gold (NPG) article having a plurality of nanopores; c) cleaning the surface of said NPG article and removing said de-alloying solution from said nanopores with deionized water; d) attaching an electrode to said NPG article; e) depositing a monoatomic layer or lower layer of copper, silver, or lead, onto the surface of and within the nanopores of said NPG article through the use of a cyclic voltammery (CV) method or a potentiostatic method by immersing said NPG article in an ion solution comprising 1 μmol/dm 3 to 10 mol/dm 3 of copper, silver, or lead ion, to form an M-NPG article, where M denotes elemental copper, silver or lead; f) removing said M-NPG article from said ion solution; g) replacing said monoatomic layer or lower layer of copper, silver, or lead with platinum ions by immersing said M-NPG article into a platinum ion solution comprising 1 μmol/dm 3 to 10 mol/dm 3 of platinum ion for a time period of between 1 min to 100 h to form an NPG-Pt article; h) cleaning said electrode and said NPG-Pt article with deionized water; i) wherein steps d-h are repeated to increase the loading of platinum onto said NPG-Pt article to a pre-determined level; j) depositing a monoatomic layer or lower layer of copper, silver, or lead, onto the surface of and within the nanopores of said NPG-Pt article through the use of a cyclic voltammery (CV) method or a potentiostatic method by immersing said NPG-Pt article in an ion solution comprising 1 μmol/dm 3 to 10 mol/dm 3 of copper, silver, or lead ion, to form an M-NPG-Pt article, where M denotes elemental copper, silver or lead; k) removing said M-NPG-Pt article from said ion solution; l) replacing said monoatomic layer or lower layer of copper, silver, or lead with gold ions by immersing said M-NPG-Pt article into a gold ion solution comprising 1 μmol/dm 3 to 10 mol/dm 3 of gold ion for a time period of between 1 min to 100 h to form an NPG-Pt—Au article; m) cleaning said electrode and said NPG-Pt—Au article with deionized water; n) wherein steps j-m are repeated to increase the loading of gold onto said NPG-Pt—Au article/catalyst to a pre-determined level.