Ultrafine palladium-gold-phosphorus ternary alloyed nanoparticles anchored on ionic liquids-noncovalently functionalized carbon nanotubes with excellent electrocatalytic property for ethanol oxidation reaction in alkaline media

•Ultrafine Pd-Au-P NPs was uniformly anchored on ionic liquids functionalized CNTs.•The Pd4Au1-P/PDIL-CNTs possessed promoted electrocatalytic performance toward EOR.•A possible synergistic mechanism of PDIL-CNTs, P, Au and Pd for EOR is also proposed.

Aiming to design and develop efficient ethanol electrooxidation reaction (EOR) catalysts, a new Pd-Au-P ternary nanoalloy catalyst (denoted as Pd4Au1-P/PDIL-CNTs) comprised of the ultrafine ternary alloyed nanoparticles of Pd4Au1-P (∼2.3 nm) uniformly anchored on ionic liquids derived from 3,4,9,10-perylene tetracarboxylic acid noncovalent functionalized carbon nanotubes (PDIL-CNTs) was fabricated through a facile surfactant-free wet chemical technique. Systematic characterization confirmed the formation of the Pd4Au1-Pd ternary nanoalloy and different electronic effects of the two alloying elements (Au and P) on Pd. Impressively, the Pd4Au1-P/PDIL-CNTs possessed promoted electrocatalytic performance, accelerated kinetics and enhanced stability than other tested catalysts toward EOR in alkaline medium, primarily owing to the synergistic effect of PDIL-CNTs, P, Au and Pd. Furthermore, a possible synergistic mechanism of PDIL-CNTs, P, Au and Pd for EOR is also proposed. Consequently, the newly-designed ternary alloyed catalyst has great promise in constructing high-performance portable systems for advanced applications.

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