Etching high-Fe-content PtPdFe nanoparticles as efficient catalysts towards glycerol electrooxidation

Abstract

Recently, great effort has been made to improve the activity and stability, as well as increase the utilization efficiency of noble metal-based electrocatalysts. Herein, a dealloyed PtPd-based nanoparticle (PtPd-x/C, x = 0, 2, 4, 6, 8, 10), with a small amount of Fe inside, is obtained by etching a high-Fe-content PtPdFe nanoparticle precursor. The final PtPd-x/C having a large amount of PtPd exposed on the surface can effectively increase the utilization efficiency of the mass-based unit precious-metal to facilitate glycerol electrooxidation. Attractively, the optimal PtPd-6/C not only exhibits higher electrochemically active surface area (113.33 cm² mg_PtPd⁻¹), oxidation peak current (0.86 A mg_PtPd⁻¹) and stability (0.48 A mg_PtPd⁻¹ after 3000 s and 5.8% current decreases after 400 cycles), but also shows excellent CO tolerance compared to others. This work demonstrates that the design of a multi-component noble metal composite is a feasible way to obtain some efficient electrocatalysts.