High activity of carbon nanotubes supported binary and ternary Pd-based catalysts for methanol, ethanol and formic acid electro-oxidation

In this study, we have synthesized a series of multi-walled carbon nanotubes supported Pd, PdCu(molar ratio 1:1), PdSn(1:1) and PdCuSn(1:1:1) catalysts by chemical reduction with NaBH4 as a reducing agent. These catalysts are characterized using X-ray diffraction, transmission electron microscopy, energy dispersive X-ray spectroscopy, X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS), cyclic voltammetry and chronoamperometry. During the potential cycling activation, it is found that the additive Cu is prone to suffer leaching while the dissolution of Sn rarely occurs. Electrochemical measurements demonstrate that, the co-alloying of Pd with Cu and Sn can trigger the best catalytic activity enhancement as compared with the binary PdCu/CNTs, PdSn/CNTs and mono-component Pd/CNTs catalysts. The PdCuSn/CNTs reveals the most excellent activities toward methanol, ethanol and formic acid electro-oxidation and the corresponding mass activity can attain to 395.94, 872.70 and 534.83 mA mg−1 Pd, respectively. The possible promotion effect of additive Sn or/and Cu on the electrocatalytic activity improvement is also analyzed.