Ink‐printed metal/graphene aerogel for glucose electro‐oxidation

Abstract

AbstractThree‐dimensional (3D) printing has become one of the promising technologies for the development of bulk‐sized nanomaterial composites for electrocatalysis. However, traditional methods such as field deposition modeling and stereolithography are not suitable for the development of functionalized materials for practical use. A large number of studies have focused on the development of the direct ink writing (DIW) printing technique for the fabrication of graphene aerogel (GA)‐based electrodes with binders for electrocatalysis. Only a few studies have focused on the synthesis of GA materials from binder‐free graphene oxide (GO) using the DIW 3D printing method. Here, we describe the preparation of GA‐based electrodes (without size contraction) with different Pd–Pt loadings using the DIW printing method with a commercial 3D food printer. The electron microscopy results showed that a Pd–Pt/GA monolith with a high Pd–Pt loading (59.43 wt%) could be obtained. The DIW‐printed Pd–Pt/GA‐2 electrode showed good electrochemical performance in glucose electrooxidation (GOR), with a high output current density of 0.94 A g−1 in 0.3 M glucose/1 M NaOH solution at the 3000th cycle operation (60 h). This study shows the potential of DIW‐printed binder‐free Pd–Pt/GA electrodes for use in fuel cell applications.