Formic acid electrooxidation on small, {1 0 0} structured, and Pd decorated carbon-supported Pt nanoparticles

Abstract

The use of shape-controlled nanomaterials represents an elegant way to improve the performance of many electrochemical reactions. However, two main aspects must be still optimised: decreasing particle size and increasing their activity. This study shows that the deposition of Pd on different small (3–5 nm) supported Pt materials (displaying a preferential structure containing ~40% of Pt{100} terraces) leads to a great enhancement in the electrocatalytic activity towards the formic acid electrooxidation reaction. After Pd decoration, the oxidation takes place at lower overpotentials and oxidation current densities are significantly higher than those observed with all the bare Pt/C samples. For the Pt/C 45% catalyst, the intrinsic activity after Pd deposition was more than three times of that without Pd, while the oxidation overpotential shifted about ~200 mV to lower overpotentials.