Facile synthesis of PdAg nanocatalysts on CeO2/C composite supports as high-performance catalysts toward alkaline ethanol electro-oxidation

Abstract

Direct alkaline ethanol fuel cells (DAEFCs) have attracted great attention as one of the most promising portable energy systems. In this work, we report a novel and facile method to prepare PdAg/xCeO₂/C hybrid nanostructured anode catalysts without reducing agents or surfactants. The microstructure and morphology of the as-synthesized nanocatalysts were investigated by X-ray diffraction (XRD), high-resolution transmission electron microscopy (HRTEM) and X-ray photon spectroscopy (XPS) techniques. Furthermore, the electrochemical performance of the resultant catalysts was studied using cyclic voltammetry (CV) and chronoamperometry (CA) measurements. Among the different compositions of PdAg/xCeO₂/C catalysts, PdAg/30CeO₂/C showed the highest performance for ethanol electro-oxidation reaction (EOR) in the alkaline medium. Such an excellent performance for the EOR indicates that the as-synthesized PdAg/30CeO₂/C catalyst could be potentially used as a high performance anode catalyst in DAEFCs.