Issue 24, 2020

Enhancement of the performance of Pd nanoclusters confined within ultrathin silica layers for formic acid oxidation

Abstract

The optimized design of highly active and stable anode electrocatalysts is essential for high performance direct formic acid fuel cells (DFAFCs). Herein, a facile and cost-effective strategy was proposed to fabricate a robust ultrasmall Pd nanocluster confined within ultrathin protective silica layers anchored on nitrogen doped reduced GO (NrGO) through generating amine functionalized graphene oxide with 3-aminopropyl triethoxysilane (APTES), followed by tuning the thickness of protective silica layers by precisely controlling the amount of tetraethylorthosilicate (TEOS). Amine functionalized graphene oxide generated by using APTES favors the formation of ultrasmall Pd nanoclusters due to the coordination of amine to PdCl24− while the confinement effect of ultrathin protective silica layers stabilizes ultrasmall Pd nanoclusters and impedes the agglomeration and sintering of ultrasmall Pd nanoclusters during electrocatalysis. As a result, the ultrasmall Pd nanoclusters (∼1.4 nm) confined in silica layers on NrGO (Pd/NrGO@SiO2) demonstrate a very high forward peak current density for formic acid oxidation (FAO) of 2.37 A mg−1, outperforming the Pd/C catalyst (0.30 A mg−1) and the Pd/rGO catalyst obtained by a conventional method (0.42 A mg−1). More importantly, our confined Pd catalysts show the highest stability of only 5% inconspicuous degradation of the initial mass activity after 1000 cycles, compared with Pd/C (almost 100% loss), Pd/rGO (61.5% loss) and Pd/NrGO (73.2% loss). These strategies in this work provide a new prospect for the design of excellent noble catalysts to overcome the challenges in the practical application of DFAFCs.

Graphical abstract: Enhancement of the performance of Pd nanoclusters confined within ultrathin silica layers for formic acid oxidation

Supplementary files

Article information

Article type
Paper
Submitted
11 1 2020
Accepted
16 5 2020
First published
18 5 2020

Nanoscale, 2020,12, 12891-12897

Enhancement of the performance of Pd nanoclusters confined within ultrathin silica layers for formic acid oxidation

J. Shan, T. Zeng, W. Wu, Y. Tan, N. Cheng and S. Mu, Nanoscale, 2020, 12, 12891 DOI: 10.1039/D0NR00307G

To request permission to reproduce material from this article, please go to the Copyright Clearance Center request page.

If you are an author contributing to an RSC publication, you do not need to request permission provided correct acknowledgement is given.

If you are the author of this article, you do not need to request permission to reproduce figures and diagrams provided correct acknowledgement is given. If you want to reproduce the whole article in a third-party publication (excluding your thesis/dissertation for which permission is not required) please go to the Copyright Clearance Center request page.

Read more about how to correctly acknowledge RSC content.

Social activity

Spotlight

Advertisements