A facile route to prepare PdPt alloys for ethanol electro-oxidation in alkaline electrolyte

We adopted a displacement reaction in acidic solution that enabled the spontaneous reduction of Pd and Pt cations in conjunction with corrosive dissolution of Ni. The composition for the PdPt was adjusted by varying the concentration of Pd and Pt cations. From SEM images and XRD patterns, the PdPt formed an fcc alloy uniformly deposited on the Ni substrate. Electro-oxidation of ethanol was conducted in alkaline electrolyte for samples of Pd, Pt, and PdPt alloys. In cyclic voltammetric profiles, the Pd77Pt23 revealed the highest electrocatalytic ability in both apparent current and mass activity, followed by Pd87Pt13, Pd, and Pt. Similar behaviors were observed in life time measurements in which stable performances for ethanol electro-oxidation were obtained.