High‐Performance Electrocatalytic Activity of Palladium‐Copper Nanoalloy towards Methanol Electro‐oxidation in an Alkaline Medium

Abstract

Nanoalloy of PdCu were synthesized with three different stoichiometry ratio (3 : 1, 1 : 1, 1 : 3) by simple co‐reduction process at 5 °C with Triton X‐100 as surface modifier. Morphology and composition of the synthesized catalyst were characterized by X‐ray diffraction (XRD), X‐ray photo electron spectroscopy (XPS), scanning electron microscope (SEM), transmission electron microscope (TEM), energy dispersive X‐ray analysis (EDAX) with selected area electron diffraction (SAED) techniques. Electrocatalytic activity and stability of the catalysts towards methanol oxidation reaction were verified in alkaline medium by cyclic voltammetry (CV) and chronoamperometry (CA). Observed results emphasis that PdCu nanoalloy in the 3 : 1 stoichiometric ratio shows better catalytic activity (778.98 mA mg−1) and stability not only in the initial state (93.73 mA mg−1) but also after 1800 s (8.61 mA mg−1) among all other prepared catalysts.

PdCu alloy nanodendrites with tunable composition as highly active electrocatalysts for methanol oxidation

“…† We nd that the enhancement factor (with commercial Pd/C as a reference) of our Pd 35 Cu 65 alloy nanodendrites ranked at the forefront, owing to the unique dendritic structure relative to other typical examples in the literatures. [49][50][51][52][53][54] The long-term performance of PdCu alloy nanodendrites and Pd/C towards the MOR was evaluated in 0.1 M KOH and 0.5 M CH 3 OH for 3000 s (Fig. 7).…”

“…The Pd 35 Cu 65 catalyst exhibited the highest current in the entire test time, implying that superior stability originates from a high Cu content, which could accelerate the oxidation of CO ads . 50,56 The enhanced performances of the PdCu alloy catalysts in the MOR can be attributed to a combination of a bifunctional mechanism and the unique dendritic structures. 39,57 In methanol electro-oxidation, reaction intermediates mainly containing CO ads are inevitably generated, which severely poison the active sites by strongly adsorbing on the surface of the Pd sites.…”

Size effect studies in catalysis: a simple surfactant-free synthesis of sub 3 nm Pd nanocatalysts supported on carbon

“…Previous studies optimised the activity of Pd electrocatalysts by alloying, [18][19][20] by using different supports 17,[21][22][23] or crystal structures. 24,25 Investigating NPs with a diameter less than 3 nm was challenging.…”

Palladium/Copper Nanoalloy Supported on Carbon Nanotubes for the Electrooxidation of Methanol and Ethylene Glycol

“…The intensity, as well as sharpness of the diffraction peak at around 2θ=26.0°, confirms the presence of graphitic carbon nature with typical C (002) plane in PdCu/CNT compared to PdCu/VC which shows that the CNTs are orderly arranged than Vulcan carbon. Additionally, both materials having a characteristic diffraction peak (2θ) at around 40.6°, 46.7° and 68.4° attributed to the presence of Pd and Cu and the (111), (200), (220) plane values are consistent with Pd (JCPDS‐05‐0681) and Cu (JCPDS‐04‐0836) . A negligible shift of Pd diffraction patterns with the absence of Cu patterns indicates the formation of its alloy rather than the establishment of pure Pd and Cu nanoparticles.…”