A highly active carbon-supported PdSn catalyst for formic acid electrooxidation

A carbon-supported PdSn (PdSn/C) catalyst was prepared by a chemical reduction method with the aid of microwave radiation and was characterized by X-ray diffraction spectroscopy and energy dispersive spectroscopy. Formic acid electrooxidations on PdSn/C and Pd/C catalysts were investigated and compared in an acidic medium by voltammetry and chronoamperometry. The results show that the performance of the PdSn/C-3 catalyst which ratio of Pd:Sn is about 3:1 for formic acid oxidation is greatly improved compared with that of Pd/C; thus, PdSn/C-3 is a promising candidate as an anode catalyst in direct formic acid fuel cells. Additionally, the value of the apparent activation energy shows that the activity of formic acid oxidation on the PdSn/C is sensitive to the temperature at relatively high potentials.

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► High active and stable PdSn/C catalyst for formic acid electrooxidation.
► High dispersed PdSn/C catalyst for formic acid electrooxidation.
► Kinetic parameters were obtained for formic acid electrooxidation at PdSn/C catalyst.
► The activation energy at different potential for formic acid oxidation was obtained.