Highly active and durable flowerlike Pd/Ni(OH)2 catalyst for the electrooxidation of ethanol in alkaline medium

Abstract

In this paper, a novel flowerlike Pd/Ni(OH)₂ catalyst is successfully synthesized, and characterized using scanning electron microscopy (SEM), transmission electron microscopy (TEM), X-ray diffraction (XRD) and energy-dispersive X-ray spectrometry (EDX) elemental mapping. The results indicate that the flowerlike Pd nanoparticles possess a three-dimensional structure. These flowerlike Pd nanoparticles are uniformly dispersed on the surface of Ni(OH)₂. The incorporation of Ni(OH)₂ plays the key role in promoting the dissociative adsorption of water molecules and subsequent oxidative removal of poisonous intermediates on neighboring palladium sites. Because of the synergistic effects between the flowerlike Pd nanoparticles and Ni(OH)₂, the Pd/Ni(OH)₂ electrocatalyst exhibits high catalytic activity, excellent durability and superior CO poisoning tolerance for the electrooxidation of ethanol in comparison with commercial Pd/C.