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A novel finding, that the pyrolysis products of the mixture containing NiO, PdO and multi-walled carbon nanotubes (MWCNTs) (denoted as Pd x Ni y /MWCNTs), as compared to the system having only PdO and MWCNTs, have significant electrocatalytic activity for ethanol oxidation reaction (EOR), is reported for the first time in this work. The effects of the atomic ratio of Pd to Ni on the physicochemical properties of the synthesized Pd x Ni y /MWCNTs composites are basically investigated by using X-ray diffraction (XRD), scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS). XRD results indicate that the crystallinities of the prepared catalysts are closely related to the atomic ratio of Pd to Ni. SEM observations reveal that the morphologies of the synthesized catalysts are also strongly affected by the atomic ratio of Pd to Ni. The electrocatalytic activity of the prepared Pd x Ni y /MWCNTs materials towards EOR is examined, and the results demonstrate that the best electrocatalytic activity for EOR is exhibited by the catalyst with an atomic ratio of Pd to Ni 1:1. Showing the fact, that the pyrolysis product of the mixture having PdO and NiO and MWCNTs has excellent electrocatalytic activity for EOR, is the main contribution of this work, which is believed to have developed a novel cost-effective electrocatalyst for EOR. Abstract Text, 800-1000 characters.

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For the first time, a novel composite material, that contained Si, SnO 2 and graphene, was prepared by using an air condition calcination method employing commercial silicon wafer, SnCl 4 and graphene as the starting materials. In this work, four samples, i.e., Si (sample a), Si+SnCl 4 (sample b), Si+SnCl 4 +graphene (sample c) and Si+SnCl 4 +lignin (sample d), were fabricated and systematically investigated. The physicochemical properties of the synthesized samples were characterized mainly by using X-ray diffraction (XRD) and scanning electron microscopy (SEM). XRD results strongly indicated that elementary Si existed in all prepared samples and SnO 2 was contained in sample b, c and d. The electrochemical properties of the resultants samples were investigated basically by employing cyclic voltammometry (CV), galvanostatic charge-discharge tests and electrochemical impedance spectroscopy (EIS), and the results revealed that the discharge capacities of sample c and d were respectively estimated to be about 350 and 272 mAh g -1 after 20 cycles at 100 mA g -1 . It should be emphasized that no harsh preparation conditions were employed in this work. That is to say, this newly created novel kind of composite anode materials, i.e., sample c, can be large-scale produced easily, being very helpful to the development of commercial production of lithium ions batteries (LIBs) anode materials.