Sonochemical synthesis of tungsten carbide–palladium nanocomposites and their electrocatalytic activity for hydrogen oxidation reaction

✍ Scribed by Ji-Hoon Jang; Juyeong Kim; Yang-Hee Lee; Chanho Pak; Young-Uk Kwon

• Publisher: Elsevier Science
• Year: 2009
• Tongue: English
• Weight: 912 KB
• Volume: 55
• Category: Article
• ISSN: 0013-4686
• DOI: 10.1016/j.electacta.2009.08.061

✦ Synopsis

Nanocomposites between ␤-WC and Pd nanoparticles supported on carbon are synthesized and their electrocatalytic properties for the hydrogen oxidation reaction have been investigated. The Pd nanoparticles are obtained by a chemical reduction reaction of PdCl 2 and the ␤-WC nanoparticles by a sonochemical decomposition of W(CO) 6 on Pd-loaded carbon followed by heat-treatment. Depending on the relative amounts of W to Pd, the Pd nanoparticles can be reacted with W to form Pd-W alloy nanoparticles. The Pd-W alloy, whose composition is estimated to have W less than 18 at.% based on its lattice parameter, lost most of the catalytic activity of Pd. On the other hand, the nanocomposite between ␤-WC and pure Pd shows an enhanced activity compared with that of Pd nanoparticles alone. This enhancement can be explained with the H + -spill-over to ␤-WC.