An ambient aqueous synthesis for highly dispersed and active Pd/C catalyst for formic acid electro-oxidation

✍ Scribed by Niancai Cheng; Haifeng Lv; Wei Wang; Shichun Mu; Mu Pan; Frank Marken

• Publisher: Elsevier Science
• Year: 2010
• Tongue: English
• Weight: 370 KB
• Volume: 195
• Category: Article
• ISSN: 0378-7753
• DOI: 10.1016/j.jpowsour.2010.05.039

✦ Synopsis

An experimentally simple process is reported in aqueous solution and under ambient conditions to prepare highly dispersed and active Pd/C catalyst without the use of a stabilizing agent. The [Pd(NH 3 ) 4 ] 2+ ion is synthesized with gentle heating in aqueous ammonia solution without formation of Pd(OH) x complex intermediates. The adsorbed [Pd(NH 3 ) 4 ] 2+ on the surface of carbon (Vulcan XC-72) is reduced in situ to Pd nanoparticles by NaBH 4 . The Pd/C catalyst obtained is characterized by X-ray diffraction (XRD) and transmission electron microscopy (TEM). The results show that highly dispersed Pd/C catalyst with 20 wt.% Pd content and with an average Pd nanoparticle diameter of 4.3-4.7 nm could be obtained. The electrochemical measurements show that the Pd/C catalyst without stabilizer has a higher electro-oxidation activity for formic acid compared to that of a Pd/C catalyst prepared in a traditional high temperature polyol process in ethylene glycol.