Synthesis of carbon-supported multimetallic palladium-based electrocatalysts for direct ethanol fuel cells (DEFCs)

Abstract

The commercialization of direct ethanol fuel cells (DEFCs) is hindered by platinum dependency, catalyst degradation, and high costs. This work addresses these challenges by developing carbon-supported trimetallic PdAuM/C (M = Rh, Ir, Ag) electrocatalysts for the ethanol oxidation reaction (EOR). Through a controlled synthesis protocol, PdAuM/C nanoparticles (3.1-6.7 nm) with alloyed structures were characterized by XRD, TEM, EDX, and XPS. Electrochemical analyses (CV, CA, EIS) in alkaline media revealed unprecedented EOR activity: PdAuRh/C achieved a peak current density of 10,500 mA·mg⁻¹Pd and onset potential of - 680 mV vs. NHE-5.8× higher current and 195 mV lower overpotential than monometallic Pd/C (1,800 mA·mg⁻¹Pd, - 485 mV). PdAuIr/C and PdAuAg/C also outperformed Pd/C, though PdAuAg exhibited a typical dual oxidation peaks. The synergistic electronic effects in PdAuRh/C minimized CO poisoning and maximized active sites, positioning it as a sustainable, high-performance alternative to Pt-based catalysts for DEFCs.

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Item Type:	Article
Authors/Creators:	ElSheikh, A. Alsoghier, H.M. Mousa, H.M. Zhu, C. McGregor, J. https://orcid.org/0000-0001-6813-306X
Copyright, Publisher and Additional Information:	© The Author(s) 2026. This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License, which permits any non-commercial use, sharing, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons licence, and indicate if you modified the licensed material. You do not have permission under this licence to share adapted material derived from this article or parts of it. The images or other third party material in this article are included in the article’s Creative Commons licence, unless indicated otherwise in a credit line to the material. If material is not included in the article’s Creative Commons licence and your intended use is not permitted by statutory regulation or exceeds the permitted use, you will need to obtain permission directly from the copyright holder. To view a copy of this licence, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/.
Keywords:	Alkaline electrocatalysis; Ethanol oxidation reaction (EOR); Palladium-gold catalysts; Trimetallic electrocatalysts
Dates:	Submitted: 9 July 2025 Accepted: 8 January 2026 Published (online): 16 February 2026 Published: 16 February 2026
Institution:	The University of Sheffield
Academic Units:	The University of Sheffield > Faculty of Engineering (Sheffield) > School of Chemical, Materials and Biological Engineering
Date Deposited:	23 Mar 2026 10:07
Last Modified:	23 Mar 2026 10:07
Status:	Published
Publisher:	Springer Science and Business Media LLC
Refereed:	Yes
Identification Number:	10.1038/s41598-026-35821-x
Related URLs:	PubMed URL
Sustainable Development Goals:
Open Archives Initiative ID (OAI ID):	oai:eprints.whiterose.ac.uk:239403

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Synthesis of carbon-supported multimetallic palladium-based electrocatalysts for direct ethanol fuel cells (DEFCs)

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