Highly efficient blackberry-like trimetallic PdAuCu nanoparticles with optimized Pd content for ethanol electrooxidation

Abstract

The rational design of highly efficient catalysts for ethanol electrooxidation is extremely challenging for developing direct ethanol fuel cells (DEFCs). Herein, a facile one-pot method has been developed to prepare blackberry-like PdAuCu nanoparticles (NPs) with tunable composition and surface structures. Among PdAuCu NPs with different Pd contents (1.6–22 mass%), PdAuCu NPs-0.5 (contained Pd at 2.5 mass%) delivered one of the highest catalytic activities of Pd-based catalysts towards ethanol electrooxidation, exhibiting a mass activity of 23.0 A mg_Pd⁻¹. Kinetic analysis, electrochemical impedance spectroscopy and CO stripping test results suggested that the excellent electrocatalytic activity may originate from the optimized balance between Pd content and surface structure of PdAuCu NPs-0.5. The optimization of the balance between composition and surface structure would contribute to the further design of multimetallic nanoparticles for fuel cells and other applications.