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Electrocatalysis of Pd–Er bimetallic catalysts for methanol oxidation in alkaline media

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Abstract

The Pd–Er/C catalysts with different Pd/Er ratios were synthesized through a simple simultaneous reduction reaction with sodium borohydride in aqueous solution. The structural and morphological features were characterized by X-ray diffraction (XRD) and transmission electron microscopy (TEM), respectively. The electrocatalytic performance of those catalysts for methanol oxidation in alkaline media was tested using cyclic voltammetry (CV) and linear sweep voltammetry (LSV). It is found that the Pd-4Er/C catalyst has a higher catalytic activity than the Pd/C catalyst. CO stripping experiments show its good resistance to CO poisoning, which can be explained by a bifunctional mechanism. According to the results from the X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS), the higher content of metallic Pd caused by the doping of metal Er also accounts for the improvement of catalytic performance. This work provides a highly efficient catalyst for methanol electrooxidation in alkaline media.

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Funding

The authors are grateful for the financial support by Beijing Municipal Natural Science Foundation (Grant No. 2184127), Key Research Program of Frontier Sciences of Chinese Academy of Sciences (Grant No. QYZDJ-SSW-JSC021), as well as by “Strategic Priority Research Program” of Chinese Academy of Sciences (Grant No. XDA21070302).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. National Engineering Laboratory for Hydrometallurgical Cleaner Production Technology, Institute of Process Engineering, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, 100190, China

    Ding Hua, Kai Meng, Zhijun Jia, Yi Wang & Tao Qi

  2. University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, 100049, China

    Ding Hua & Kai Meng

  3. Institute of Materials for Energy and Environment, College of Materials Science and Engineering, Qingdao University, Qingdao, 266071, China

    Lian Ying Zhang

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  1. Ding Hua
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  2. Lian Ying Zhang
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  3. Kai Meng
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  4. Zhijun Jia
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  5. Yi Wang
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  6. Tao Qi
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Correspondence to Yi Wang or Tao Qi.

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Hua, D., Zhang, L.Y., Meng, K. et al. Electrocatalysis of Pd–Er bimetallic catalysts for methanol oxidation in alkaline media. Ionics 26, 3459–3464 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11581-020-03461-4

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11581-020-03461-4

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