Solvothermal-assisted preparation of PdRhTe nanowires as an efficient electrocatalyst for ethylene glycol oxidation

Abstract

Developing active and durable electrocatalysts for the ethylene glycol electrooxidation reaction (EGOR) is vital for the corresponding direct fuel cells with ethylene glycol as the energy resource. As elements located at nearby positions in the periodic table, Pd and Rh often exhibit catalytic performance similar to that of Pt. Thus, Pd- and Rh-based catalysts are emerging as alternative catalysts to replace Pt-based catalysts in many catalytic reactions. To explore EGOR electrocatalysts with high performance, research focused on the optimization of the structure and composition of the electrocatalysts, including Pd- and Rh-based electrocatalysts, is continually being carried out. Despite a few recent advances, it remains a great challenge to synthesize Pd- and Rh-based electrocatalysts with definite shape and composition, such as one-dimensional nanowires, and their electrocatalytic performance remains unexplored. Herein, we successfully developed a solvothermal-assisted approach to prepare PdRhTe nanowires with tunable Pd/Rh ratios. The resultant PdRhTe nanowires present excellent EGOR performances. In particular, the Pd₄₅Rh₂₈Te₂₇ nanowire catalyst delivers the highest catalytic activity of 42.1 mA cm⁻² as well as the best tolerance over the 12 hour stability test. Electrochemical studies reveal that the improved electrooxidation kinetics upon the introduction of Rh are conducive to improvement of the EGOR performance. This work not only demonstrates a new approach for the fabrication of Pd- and Rh-based nanowires, but also inspires a new strategy for developing high-performance EGOR electrocatalysts.