Design and synthesis of palladium/graphitic carbon nitride/carbon black hybrids as high-performance catalysts for formic acid and methanol electrooxidation

Abstract

Here we report a facile two-step method to synthesize high-performance palladium/graphitic carbon nitride/carbon black (Pd/g-C3N4/carbon black) hybrids for electrooxidizing formic acid and methanol. The coating of g-C3N4 on carbon black surface is realized by a low-temperature heating treatment, followed by the uniform deposition of palladium nanoparticles (Pd NPs) via a wet chemistry route. Owning to the significant synergistic effects of the individual components, the preferred Pd/g-C3N4/carbon black electrocatalyst exhibits exceptional forward peak current densities as high as 2155 and 1720 mA mg−1Pd for formic acid oxidation in acid media and methanol oxidation in alkaline media, respectively, far outperforming the commercial Pd-C catalyst. The catalyst also shows reliable stability, demonstrating that the newly-designed hybrids have great promise in constructing high-performance portable fuel cell systems.