Two-dimensional PdSn/TiO2-GO towards ethanol electrooxidation catalyst with high stability

Abstract

Simple sol-gel method and microwave method were used to prepare two-dimensional Pd1Snx/TiO2-GO catalyst with high catalytic activity and strong resistance to CO poisoning. The morphology and structure of Pd1Snx/TiO2-GO catalyst were characterized by TEM, XRD and XPS. It was shown that the spindle TiO2 are uniformly fixed on the GO sheets and can still maintain the morphology after Pd and Sn nanoparticles loading. At the same time, Pd and Sn NPs were both uniformly anchored on the surface of the composite carrier according to EDS element mapping. The two-dimensional composite support TiO2-GO formed by the spindle-shaped TiO2 grown uniformly in-situ on GO helps to achieve uniform anchoring of metal nanoparticles. By introducing the second metal Sn, the electronic structure of Pd can be modified to provide more oxygen-containing groups, which leads to a more complete ethanol oxidation process. Through electrochemical tests, it can be found that Pd1Snx/TiO2-GO had excellent catalytic activity, anti-poisoning ability and long-term stability for ethanol electrooxidation in alkaline environment. The residual current density of Pd1Sn0.40/TiO2-GO is 7 times than that of PdSn/C (JM). Especially, the residual current density of Pd1Sn0.40/TiO2-GO catalyst only decreased by 16.7% after continuously scanned by cyclic voltammetry for 8 times.