Electrocatalytic activity enhancement of palladium-manganese nanosheet assembled nanobuds by tuning electronic structure

Abstract

Adding another transition metals into Pd lattice is demonstrated as an effective strategy to improve Pd utilization while enhancing its catalytic activity toward formic acid electrooxidation through the generated ligand and strain effects. However, it is still very challenging to identify the contributions from the two effects on activity enhancement, which restrains the rational design of Pd-based alloy electrocatalysts. Herein, we reported the synthesis of PdMn nanosheet assembled nanobuds using a facile polymeric surfactant-free method with eliminated strain effect essentially, which were demonstrated as advanced catalysts in the aspect of much better catalytic activity and stability compared with the-state-of-the-art Pd-C catalyst. The catalytic enhancement mechanism should be attributed to the generated ligand effect which originates from the modulated electronic structure and consequent charge redistribution.