Enhanced catalytic activity and stability of palladium decorated iridium-copper nanoparticles for formic acid e ectro-oxidation reaction

摘要

Aim to improve the catalytic activity and stability of Pd-based catalysts for formic acid electro-oxidation reaction (FAOR), a Pd decorated IrCu/C nanoparticles (NPs) catalyst was synthesized via a facile method. The crystal structure and composition were mainly characterized by XRD, ICP-OES, XPS, and TEM. According to the experimental results, the metal NPs uniformly disperse on the carbon support, and the IrCu NPs are modified by Pd which shows core-shell like structure. The Ir1Cu@Pd-8/C catalyst exhibits the highest activity and stability toward FAOR according to electrochemical measurements results. The mass activity of Pd in Ir1Cu@Pd-8/C at 0.11 V (vs. SCE) is about 1.37, 1.93 and 3.05 times as high as that of IrCuPd/C, Cu@Pd/C and Pd/C, respectively. The enhancement should be attributed to the electronic effect, bi-functional mechanism, and its unique structure.