Highly active carbon supported palladium catalysts decorated by a trace amount of platinum by an in-situ galvanic displacement reaction for formic acid oxidation

Aimed at reducing platinum usage and improved catalytic activity for formic acid oxidation, a series of Pt decorated Pd/C catalysts are prepared by an in-situ galvanic displacement reaction between freshly prepared Pd/C ink and H2PtCl6 in an aqueous solution. The catalysts with 4 nm particle sizes and 20 wt.% loadings have been characterized by transmission electron microscopy, thermogravimetric analysis and X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS). The electrochemical evaluations by cyclic voltammetry are conducted to test out the CO tolerance and catalytic activities. In addition to XPS analysis, a theoretical calculation has been attempted the first time to find out the surface Pd/Pt molar ratios. The decay rate of the catalysts has been evaluated by the percentage of the forward/backward peak current retained using the value at the 20th cycle divided by that in the first cycle. Compared with a Pd/C benchmark, all Pt decorated Pd/C register enhanced activity while the cost remains virtually unchanged. The optimized catalyst is found to have a Pd/Pt molar ratio of 75:1 but with 2.5 times activity relative to that of Pd/C.