Gold doped by palladium: Building of Au–Pd electrodes showing exceptional capability for achieving electrocatalytic reductions

Smooth gold is easily palladized by means of very thin galvanostatic deposits of Pd0. Such chemically modified materials are mainly tested in acetonitrile in the presence of tetraalkylammonium salts (TBABF4). All exhibit large usable electrochemical windows: between − 1.8 V and + 1.5 V vs. saturated calomel electrode (SCE). When employed as cathodic material, they show exceptional catalytic capabilities especially for achieving the one-electron cleavage of organic halides (RX). Thus, these modified surfaces, found to be chemically and electrochemically stable, lead to amazing potential shifts compared to those obtained with glassy carbon, smooth platinum, or gold cathodes under the same experimental conditions. Specifically, these palladium-doped gold interfaces were preliminarily used for the reduction of alkyl iodides RIs. The presence of gold is expected to boost up the catalytic effect of palladium already reported with such compounds.