A "Special" Solvent to Prepare Alloyed Pd2Ni1 Nanoclusters on a MWCNT Catalyst for Enhanced Electrocatalytic Oxidation of Formic Acid

Pingping Yang; Li Zhang; Xuejiao Wei; Shiming Dong; Wenting Cao; Dong Ma; Yuejun Ouyang; Yixi Xie; Junjie Fei

doi:10.3390/nano13040755

A "Special" Solvent to Prepare Alloyed Pd₂Ni₁ Nanoclusters on a MWCNT Catalyst for Enhanced Electrocatalytic Oxidation of Formic Acid

Nanomaterials (Basel). 2023 Feb 17;13(4):755. doi: 10.3390/nano13040755.

Authors

Pingping Yang^{1

2}, Li Zhang^{1

2}, Xuejiao Wei¹, Shiming Dong¹, Wenting Cao¹, Dong Ma¹, Yuejun Ouyang¹, Yixi Xie², Junjie Fei²

Affiliations

¹ College of Chemistry and Materials Engineering, Huaihua University, Huaihua 418008, China.
² College of Chemistry, Xiangtan University, Xiangtan 411105, China.

Abstract

Herein, an electrocatalyst with Pd₂Ni₁ nanoclusters, supporting multiwalled carbon nanotubes (MWCNTs) (referred to Pd₂Ni₁/CNTs), was fabricated with deep eutectic solvents (DES), which simultaneously served as reducing agent, dispersant, and solvent. The mass activity of the catalyst for formic acid oxidation reaction (FAOR) was increased nearly four times compared to a Pd/C catalyst. The excellent catalytic activity of Pd₂Ni₁/CNTs was ascribed to the special nanocluster structure and appropriate Ni doping, which changed the electron configuration of Pd to reduce the d-band and to produce a Pd-Ni bond as a new active sites. These newly added Ni sites obtained more OH^- to release more effective active sites by interacting with the intermediate produced in the first step of FAOR. Hence, this study provides a new method for preparing a Pd-Ni catalyst with high catalytic performance.

Keywords: Pd2Ni1 nanocluster; Pd–Ni bond; deep eutectic solvents; doping; formic acid oxidation reaction.

Abstract

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