Conventional wet-chemistry synthesis of Au-based nanoalloys often suffers from core–shell/segregated structures or incomplete alloying due to mismatched metal redox kinetics, limiting their structural uniformity and electrocatalytic performance. To address this challenge, we herein develop a robust, versatile strategy for fabricating carbon-supported Au-based nanoalloys by coupling rapid Joule-heating with the basic solid-state diffusion theory. This method offers distinct advantages: Joule-heating enables ultrafast, controllable high-temperature generation, which efficiently drives rapid solid-state diffusion of metal atoms; meanwhile, pre-synthesized ∼1.5 nm Au clusters (as seeds) ensure homogeneous elemental mixing by shortening diffusion distances and promoting substitutional diffusion. It successfully produces well-dispersed, crystalline AuPd nanoalloys with uniform Au/Pd distribution. Moreover, the strategy is universal, extending to binary AuM/C (M = Fe, Ni, Cu, Rh, Pt) and multi-component nanoalloys (e.g., ternary AuCuPd/C, quaternary AuCuPtPd/C). Electrocatalytic tests show that Au1Pd1/C outperforms commercial Pd/C in the alkaline oxygen reduction reaction and ethanol oxidation reaction, confirming the strategy's value for developing high-performance electrocatalysts.
Zheng et al. (Sun,) studied this question.