High-Efficiency Palladium Nanoparticles Supported on Hydroxypropyl-β-Cyclodextrin Modified Fullerene [60] for Ethanol Oxidation

•C60 support provides new ways to develop catalyst materials for its distorted structure.•Pd nanoparticles with uniform size and high dispersion have been successfully assembled on HP-β-CD-C60 in aqueous solution.•Pd/HP-β-CD-C60 shows very promising catalytic activity for ethanol oxidation.

In this paper, Palladium nanoparticles with uniform size and high dispersion have been successfully assembled on hydroxypropyl-β-Cyclodextrin (HP-β-CD) modified C60 (abbreviated as HP-β-CD-C60) via a sodium borohydride reduction process. According to the transmission electron microscopy (TEM) measurements, the average particle size of the as-prepared Pd nanoparticles dispersed on HP-β-CD modified C60 is 2.7 nm. Electrochemical studies reveal that the Pd/HP-β-CD-C60 modified electrode shows a significantly high electrocatalytic activity, much more negative onset potentials and better stability than electrodes modified by other electrocatalysts for ethanol oxidation, which indicates that it is a better potential candidate for application in a direct ethanol fuel cell (DEFC).