Palladium Particles Modified by Mixed-Frequency Square-Wave Potential Treatment to Enhance Electrocatalytic Performance for Formic Acid Oxidation

Fangchao Li; Bin Liu; Yuanhao Shen; Jie Liu; Cheng Zhong; Wenbin Hu

doi:10.3390/catal11040522

Catalysts (Apr 2021)

Palladium Particles Modified by Mixed-Frequency Square-Wave Potential Treatment to Enhance Electrocatalytic Performance for Formic Acid Oxidation

Fangchao Li,
Bin Liu,
Yuanhao Shen,
Jie Liu,
Cheng Zhong,
Wenbin Hu

Affiliations

Fangchao Li: Key Laboratory of Advanced Ceramics and Machining Technology (Ministry of Education), Tianjin Key Laboratory of Composite and Functional Materials, School of Materials Science and Engineering, Tianjin University, Tianjin 300072, China
Bin Liu: Key Laboratory of Advanced Ceramics and Machining Technology (Ministry of Education), Tianjin Key Laboratory of Composite and Functional Materials, School of Materials Science and Engineering, Tianjin University, Tianjin 300072, China
Yuanhao Shen: Key Laboratory of Advanced Ceramics and Machining Technology (Ministry of Education), Tianjin Key Laboratory of Composite and Functional Materials, School of Materials Science and Engineering, Tianjin University, Tianjin 300072, China
Jie Liu: Key Laboratory of Advanced Ceramics and Machining Technology (Ministry of Education), Tianjin Key Laboratory of Composite and Functional Materials, School of Materials Science and Engineering, Tianjin University, Tianjin 300072, China
Cheng Zhong: Key Laboratory of Advanced Ceramics and Machining Technology (Ministry of Education), Tianjin Key Laboratory of Composite and Functional Materials, School of Materials Science and Engineering, Tianjin University, Tianjin 300072, China
Wenbin Hu: Key Laboratory of Advanced Ceramics and Machining Technology (Ministry of Education), Tianjin Key Laboratory of Composite and Functional Materials, School of Materials Science and Engineering, Tianjin University, Tianjin 300072, China

DOI: https://doi.org/10.3390/catal11040522
Journal volume & issue: Vol. 11, no. 4
p. 522

Abstract

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Palladium catalysts have attracted widespread attention as advanced electrocatalysts for the formic acid oxidation (FAO) due to their excellent electrocatalytic activity and relatively high abundance. At present, electrodeposition methods have been widely developed to prepare small-sized and highly-dispersed Pd electrocatalysts. However, the customary use of surfactants would introduce heterogeneous impurities, which requires complicated removal processes. In this work, we reported a two-step electrochemical method that employed square-wave potential treatment (SWPT) to modify electrodeposited Pd particles without the use of capping agents. Under the SWPT with a mixed frequency, Pd particles show significantly reduced size and more dispersed distribution, exhibiting a high mass activity of 1.43 A mg−1 toward FAO, which is 4.6 times higher than the counterpart of commercial Pd/C. The increase in electrocatalytic activity of FAO is attributed to the highly developed surface of palladium particles uniformly distributed over the support surface.

Published in Catalysts

ISSN: 2073-4344 (Online)
Publisher: MDPI AG
Country of publisher: Switzerland
LCC subjects: Technology: Chemical technology; Science: Chemistry
Website: https://www.mdpi.com/journal/catalysts

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