(702e) PdFe Nanorods as Highly Active Electrocatalysts for Ethanol Oxidation in Alkaline

Palladium (Pd) and its alloys have been demonstrated promising electrocatalytic activity towards ethanol oxidation reaction (EOR) in alkaline [1]. Recently, we have successfully synthesized PdFe-NR with high oxygen reduction reaction (ORR) in acid electrolyte (both in three-electrode-cell and single proton exchange membrane fuel cell PEMFC) [2], based on a modified synthesis approach that was firstly reported by Sun et al. [3]. In this presentation we report a convenient organic phase reduction synthesis approach to small diameter PdFe nanorods (PdFe-NR), which show very high EOR activity in alkaline.

The synthesis of PdFe-NR was obtained through chemical reduction of Pd(acac)2 and thermo-decomposition of Fe(CO)5 in oleyamine (OAm) at 160oC. The EOR activity of PdFe-NR was tested in a conventional three-electrode-cell by recording their cyclic voltammetry (CV) curves. The electrolyte was 0.1M NaOH + 0.5 M CH3CH2OH. It is found that the EOR activity of the PdFe-NR-carbon nanotubes (CNTs) (PdFe-NR deposited on CNT covered glassy carbon electrode GCE) exhibits higher mass activity than Pt/C and PtRu/C, although its onset potential of EOR remains lower than PtRu/C. TEM images show that the PdFe-NR has a mean diameter of 2.5 nm and length of 23 nm. Other Pd-based nanocatalysts, such as CNT supported PdNi, PdCo, etc, and more characterizations, such as XRD, TGA, XPS, etc are currently under working in our lab to achieve better EOR activity and attain an insight to the activity enhancement.

References:

[1]Shen et al, Electrochemical Communications, 2006, 8, 184-188.

[2]Li et al, Electrochemical Communications, 2009, doi:10.1016/j.elecom.2009.03.046.

[3]Wang et al. Angewandte Chemie-International Edition, 2007, 46, 6333-6335.

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