Elsheikh, A. and McGregor, J. orcid.org/0000-0001-6813-306X (2021) Synthesis and characterization of PdAgNi/C trimetallic nanoparticles for ethanol electrooxidation. Nanomaterials, 11 (9). 2244. ISSN 2079-4991
Abstract
The direct use of ethanol in fuel cells presents unprecedented economic, technical, and environmental opportunities in energy conversion. However, complex challenges need to be resolved. For instance, ethanol oxidation reaction (EOR) requires breaking the rigid C–C bond and results in the generation of poisoning carbonaceous species. Therefore, new designs of the catalyst electrode are necessary. In this work, two trimetallic PdxAgyNiz/C samples are prepared using a facile borohydride reduction route. The catalysts are characterized by X-ray diffraction (XRD), Energy-Dispersive X-ray spectroscopy (EDX), X-ray photoelectron Spectroscopy (XPS), and Transmission Electron Microscopy (TEM) and evaluated for EOR through cyclic voltammetry (CV), chronoamperometry (CA), and electrochemical impedance spectroscopy (EIS). The XRD patterns have shown a weak alloying potential between Pd, and Ag prepared through co-reduction technique. The catalysts prepared have generally shown enhanced performance compared to previously reported ones, suggesting that the applied synthesis may be suitable for catalyst mass production. Moreover, the addition of Ag and Ni has improved the Pd physiochemical properties and electrocatalytic performance towards EOR in addition to reducing cell fabrication costs. In addition to containing less Pd, The PdAgNi/C is the higher performing of the two trimetallic samples presenting a 2.7 A/mgPd oxidation current peak. The Pd4Ag2Ni1/C is higher performing in terms of its steady-state current density and electrochemical active surface area.
Metadata
Item Type: | Article |
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Authors/Creators: |
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Copyright, Publisher and Additional Information: | © 2021 by the authors. Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/). |
Keywords: | intermetallic XRD patterns; alloy formation; ethanol electrooxidation; metal segregation; borohydride reduction; fuel cells |
Dates: |
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Institution: | The University of Sheffield |
Academic Units: | The University of Sheffield > Faculty of Engineering (Sheffield) > Department of Chemical and Biological Engineering (Sheffield) |
Depositing User: | Symplectic Sheffield |
Date Deposited: | 31 Aug 2021 15:11 |
Last Modified: | 01 Sep 2021 01:13 |
Status: | Published |
Publisher: | MDPI AG |
Refereed: | Yes |
Identification Number: | 10.3390/nano11092244 |
Related URLs: | |
Open Archives Initiative ID (OAI ID): | oai:eprints.whiterose.ac.uk:177570 |