A facile one-step preparation of a Pd–Co bimetallic hollow nanosphere electrocatalyst for ethanol oxidation

Abstract

A facile one-step and low-cost preparation of Pd–Co bimetallic hollow nanospheres on the surface of multi-walled carbon nanotubes (MWCNTs) is introduced in this paper through a solvothermal reaction. Herein, spherical micelles composed of hexadecyl trimethyl ammonium bromide (CTAB) were employed as soft templates and ethylene glycol (EG) was used as both a solvent and as a reducing agent. According to the X-ray diffraction (XRD) and transmission electron microscopy (TEM) measurements, the novel Pd–Co bimetallic hollow nanospheres are well-dispersed on the surface of the MWCNTs with a relatively narrow particle size distribution. The diameters of the hollow nanospheres range from 77 to 89 nm, and the average shell thickness is about 10 nm. The electrochemical analysis results indicate that the as-prepared bimetallic hollow nanospheres exhibit a superior electrocatalytic activity and stability for ethanol electrooxidation than the pure palladium catalyst.