One-pot synthesis of tailored Pd–Co nanoalloy particles confined in mesoporous carbon

• PdCo nanoalloys are confined in mesoporous carbon by a one-pot synthetic approach.
• PdCo particles have small and homogenously distribution in the carbon network.
• PdCo nanoalloy size varies with the annealing temperature and metal composition.
• Hydrogen sorption capacity depends on PdCo composition.
• Rich Pd phases are able to form hydride phase thus exhibit higher sorption capacity.

The synthesis of mesoporous carbon with confined PdCo nanoalloy particles by a one-pot soft-template approach is reported herein. The influence of metal precursor type, metal composition and annealing temperature on the carbon@PdCo material characteristics was systematically investigated. Small and homogeneously distributed PdCo nanoparticles in the carbon matrix were achieved. The PdCo particle size could be tuned from 8 to 25 nm and the metal composition proved to be the main parameter controlling the size. When the amount of Pd is low (Pd50Co50) the particle is small and increases with the increase of temperature. On the contrary, for richer Pd contents (Pd75Co25, Pd90Co10) the particle size is larger but they exhibit extremely high stability with no obvious modification of size between 450 and 800 °C. The tuned experimental parameters had less impact on the materials textural characteristics, they exhibit similar surface area and uniform pore size distribution. Among the materials, only the Pd rich alloys (Pd90Co10) are able to form metallic hydride and consequently, showing the highest hydrogen adsorption capacity.

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