Synthesis and characterization of palladium-based nano-catalyst on N-doped graphene for direct ethanol fuel cells

Abstract

© 2017 Advanced Study Center Co. Ltd. Pd-containing catalyst becomes an alternative materials in the recent years since Pd has similar properties to Pt with high catalytic activity, has high abundance and is low cost material. Pd alloy is favorable applied as binary compound catalyst for cultivating activity of oxygen reduction reaction (ORR) for direct ethanol fuel cell (DEFC). This catalyst could inhibit the particle agglomeration after long time processing, require low production cost and exhibit good electrostatic force. In this study, new binary nano-catalysts (Pd-Ni) were prepared with various ratio of Pd:Ni (5:1, 4:1 and 3:1) via solution route method. Powder X-ray diffraction (XRD) was applied to confirm the formation of alloy of Pd-Ni phase. The solid-supported Pd-Ni catalysts were then prepared on N-doped graphene by solution route, microwave-assisted and polyol methods. Sodium borohydride (NaBH4) was used as a reducing agent for solution route method whereas ethylene glycol was used as a reducing agent for microwave-assisted and polyol methods. The well-dispersion of Pd-Ni nanoparticles on N-dope graphene which prepared by polyol method was observed by scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and transmission electron microscopy (TEM) techniques. TEM micrograph showed that particle sizes of synthesized catalysts were in the range of 3-7 nm and the electrochemical performance was 0.39 A/cm2•mol at 600 mV.