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Facile synthesis of a highly active Pd/Co bimetallic nanocatalyst on carbon fiber cloth via a two-step electrodeposition for formic acid electrooxidation

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Abstract

A facile and immediate two-step electrodeposition method was employed to fabricate a carbon fiber cloth (CFC) coated with Pd deposited on Co nanoparticles (NPs), with Co deposition time of 100 s (denoted as Pd/Co100/CFC). For the sake of comparison, Pd/Co10/CFC and Pd/CFC were prepared by the same method. The characterization was carried out using field emission scanning electron microscopy (FESEM), X-ray diffraction (XRD), energy-dispersive X-ray spectroscopy (EDS), and electrochemical techniques. The FESEM micrographs and XRD results revealed that an increase in Co deposition time results in a change in deposited Pd morphology from dendritic to fine and dispersed NPs, a noticeable reduction in size of Pd NPs, a rise in percentage of alloying, and contraction strain in the Pd/Co100/CFC structure. The Pd/Co100/CFC catalyst showed a mass activity of j p  = 1,220 mA mg ‐ 1Pd for formic acid (FA) electrooxidation, and it had 69.1 m2 g−1 electrochemical active surface area (ECSA), which are more than eight and three times higher than those of Pd/CFC catalyst (j P  = 140 mA mg ‐ 1Pd , ECSA = 22.8 m2 g−1), respectively. Moreover, comparison of the performance parameters of Pd/Co100/CFC with some other palladium-based electrodes in some recent studies with relatively good results showed that the Pd/Co100/CFC has a great potential as a less expensive, fast and easily prepared, and dramatically active anodic electrocatalyst in the application of direct formic acid fuel cells.

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Acknowledgments

This work is a part of project number 92006374 with Iran National Science Foundation (INSF). The authors appreciate INSF for financial and technical support. Also, the authors wish to thank the renewable energy organization of Iran (SANA) for the financial support.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Mining and Metallurgical Engineering, Amirkabir University of Technology (Tehran Polytechnic), Hafez Ave., P.O. Box 15875-4413, Tehran, Iran

    Maral Vafaei, Milad Rezaei, Seyed Hadi Tabaian, Farzad Mahboubi & Davoud Fatmehsari Haghshenas

  2. Renewable Energy Research Center (RERC), Amirkabir University of Technology (Tehran Polytechnic), Hafez Ave., P.O. Box 15875-4413, Tehran, Iran

    Seyed Hadi Tabaian

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  1. Maral Vafaei
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  2. Milad Rezaei
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  5. Davoud Fatmehsari Haghshenas
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Correspondence to Seyed Hadi Tabaian.

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Vafaei, M., Rezaei, M., Tabaian, S.H. et al. Facile synthesis of a highly active Pd/Co bimetallic nanocatalyst on carbon fiber cloth via a two-step electrodeposition for formic acid electrooxidation. J Solid State Electrochem 19, 289–298 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10008-014-2561-5

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10008-014-2561-5

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