Pd-Sb Rhombohedra with an Unconventional Rhombohedral Phase as a Trifunctional Electrocatalyst

Bingyan Xu; Tianyang Liu; Xiaocong Liang; Wenjie Dou; Hongbo Geng; Zhiyang Yu; Yafei Li; Ying Zhang; Qi Shao; Jingmin Fan; Xiaoqing Huang

doi:10.1002/adma.202206528

Pd-Sb Rhombohedra with an Unconventional Rhombohedral Phase as a Trifunctional Electrocatalyst

Adv Mater. 2022 Dec;34(50):e2206528. doi: 10.1002/adma.202206528. Epub 2022 Oct 31.

Authors

Bingyan Xu¹, Tianyang Liu², Xiaocong Liang³, Wenjie Dou¹, Hongbo Geng⁴, Zhiyang Yu³, Yafei Li², Ying Zhang⁵, Qi Shao⁶, Jingmin Fan¹, Xiaoqing Huang¹

Affiliations

¹ State Key Laboratory of Physical Chemistry of Solid Surfaces, College of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering, Xiamen University, Xiamen, 361005, China.
² Jiangsu Collaborative Innovation Centre of Biomedical Functional Materials, Jiangsu Key Laboratory of New Power Batteries, School of Chemistry and Materials Science, Nanjing Normal University, Nanjing, 210023, China.
³ State Key Laboratory of Photocatalysis on Energy and Environment College of Chemistry, Fuzhou University, Fuzhou, 350116, China.
⁴ School of Materials Engineering, Changshu Institute of Technology, Changshu, 215500, China.
⁵ Institute for Carbon Neutralization, College of Chemistry and Materials Engineering, Wenzhou University, Wenzhou, 325035, China.
⁶ College of Chemistry, Chemical Engineering and Materials Science, Soochow University, Jiangsu, 215123, China.

PMID: 36120846
DOI: 10.1002/adma.202206528

Abstract

Crystal phase engineering is an important strategy for designing noble-metal-based catalysts with optimized activity and stability. From the thermodynamic point of view, it remains a great challenge to synthesize unconventional phases of noble metals. Here, a new class of Pd-based nanostructure with unconventional rhombohedral Pd₂₀ Sb₇ phase is successfully synthesized. Benefiting from the high proportion of the unique exposed Pd₂₀ Sb₇ (003) surface, Pd₂₀ Sb₇ rhombohedra display much enhanced ethanol oxidation reaction (EOR) and oxygen reduction reaction performance compared with commercial Pd/C. Moreover, Pd₂₀ Sb₇ rhombohedra are also demonstrated as an effective air cathode in non-aqueous Li-air batteries with an overpotential of only 0.24 V. Density functional theory calculations reveal that the unique exposed facets of Pd₂₀ Sb₇ rhombohedra can not only reduce the excessive adsorption of CH₃ CO* to CH₃ COOH on Pd for promoting EOR process, but also weaken CO binding and CO poisoning. This work provides a new class of unconventional intermetallic nanomaterials with enhanced electrocatalytic activity.

Keywords: Pd 20Sb 7 phase; ethanol oxidation reaction; oxygen reduction reaction; rhombohedra.

Abstract

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